Climate ethics, climate (un)justice and ethical-political disputes in the Brazilian Payments for Environmental Services

Abstract

From the perspective of climate ethics, this article proposes to analyse the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) at the local (case study in São Paulo) and national (National Plan for Payments for Environmental Services) dimensions. The practices observed in these Brazilian political arenas were assessed via content analysis; From the guiding principles of political action, we analyse the dynamics of public policymaking actors in the light of categories such as planned naturalness, decision-making plurality, generational benefit, energy location and access to knowledge and material (PLANB Index). The final considerations refer to the urgency of public climate policies aligned with a normative ethical horizon, which must consider local perspectives as the starting point that helps the fulfilment of multilateral global agreements.