Climate Change in Brazilian Cities: Policy Strategies and Responses to Global Warming

Abstract

Local governments play a key role developing and implementing public policies to mitigate and to adapt to climate change. This paper aims to analyze how Brazilian cities are responding to climate change in terms of policy strategies and instruments. The methodological steps cover five characteristics of these policies: 1. Mitigation goals; 2. Adaptation actions; 3. Participation of different segments of society; 4. Multi-sectorial policy implementation; 5. Government participation in networks related to climate change. Our findings suggest that local climate policies in Brazil are isolated initiatives within the national context. The strongest Brazilian policies with both mitigation and adaptation actions counted on a previous mobilization for the climate issue involving different actors from several segments of the society. These cities have also participated in transnational cooperation networks related to climate change. Certainly these factors favored the adoption of laws by those governments. Most laws have multi-sectorial nature of implementation, an important factor considering the climate issue that is related to different sectors of government action.