This article explores and evaluates recent conceptual and theoretical developments in the literature on climate justice. Initially shaped by the first generation of IPCC reports and rooted in applied ethics, early climate justice debates framed the climate crisis mainly as a mitigation issue, exacerbated by global and intergenerational collective action dilemmas, requiring ethical principles for resolution. However, with increasingly dire climate forecasts and the policy inertia of the past three decades, climate justice theories have shifted toward a political economy-centered […]

A growing body of literature suggests that the platformization of the public sphere is eroding the public debate, thus potentially leading to the fragmentation of the public sphere. While there exists mounting evidences supporting this perspective there also exists a substantial body of literature that suggests otherwise. Within this realm of mixed evidence, studies on climate change visibility play a prominent role, presenting findings that both weaken and reinforce the fragmentation hypothesis. To investigate this matter in a context conducive […]

This article analyzes how Nature-based Solutions are integrated into the urban agenda in Brazilian cities. We sought to understand the co-benefits of those strategies, the main facilitators, their potentials and limitations. This article fills in the gaps of the research on Nature-based Solutions through a political science approach, providing more elements to analyze climate governance in the urban context and is based on the experiences in the Brazilian context. We analyzed two cases in depth, namely the cities of Campinas […]

Climate change is on its way to significantly impact the world economy and people’s wellbeing. It is one of the most unequal problems faced by humankind, where those who caused the problem (richer people) are much better protected from its impacts, while those at greatest risk are the poor people who contributed least to climate change. Solutions to the problem have been negotiated by countries under the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has proven incapable […]

Climate governance in Brazil is necessarily connected to the interests of three sectors: deforestation and land use change, agriculture, and energy, which, combined, represent around 90 percent of the country’s emissions. While there is a significant number of studies on the first sector, few studies have looked into the bottlenecks of decarbonization in the agricultural and energy sectors. Thus, this article addresses some modulations in Brazilian climate politics and policy by analyzing the interest groups associated with low-carbon transitions in […]

Understanding the impact of political and institutional factors on the fight against climate change has become increasingly important in the global debate on sustainability. From a political science perspective, it is crucial to research how different democratic institutions affect the development of climate policies. To contribute to this agenda, we discuss the role of participatory institutions in this policy sector. We offer a global literature review of cases where participatory mechanisms have helped improve the tools used to combat global […]

Climate change affects individuals differently. Women are one of the social groups most vulnerable to climate change. Since the legal study of climate change is associated with the idea of correcting imbalances, the goal of this study is to assess the extent to which state laws addressing climate change take into consideration gender vulnerabilities. To achieve this, the study has been structured in three phases: initially, an examination of the concept of climate justice; next, a review of the vulnerabilities […]

In this article, I provide a brief overview of the importance of biodiversity and its value for Brazil and for the world. This theme will be on the Brazilian and global agendas over the coming decades. In the case of Brazil, vast biological diversity is a clear resource for global influence and a valuable tool of soft power that, along with other resources, constitutes a hugely important asset for the country’s economic and social progress. I also briefly examine favorable […]