Governando as mudanças climáticas no nível local

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze how policy makers have internalized the risks of climate change in their local policies and have integrated them with existing policies at different levels of governance. In order to analyze the internalization process of climate change risks in terms of policy responses to the problem by local and metropolitan governments, an analytical matrix based on four points was constructed: the risks of climate change; political-institutional structures for the climate issue; climate-relate policy responses and the perceptions of governmental actors on the subject. This analytical matrix was based on the theoretical chapters and used in the in-depth study in the city of Santos, in the Santos Metropolitan Region. The results showed that this region is quite vulnerable to the risks of climate change and showed the existence of some government actions related to this issue in different sectors of activity, at the local and metropolitan levels. However, none of these actions is directly geared to deal with climate change risks, addressing them tangentially. The risks of climate change are not being internalized by governments in terms of policy responses, although actions related to these risks are mixed to other policy responses to urban problems that have interface with the climate issue and may be exacerbated by changes in the climate. In the study area, the risks of climate change are internalized as natural hazards, i.e., the political responses are more directed to natural hazards than to climate risks, without incorporating climate change scenarios into the political responses. Climate change risks are products of the development processes themselves in contemporary societies. This implies questioning these processes. The climate or climate-related policies presented in this thesis are far from achieving this, i.e., they do not go to the heart of the problem, but are configured as palliatives that allow the maintenance of the same development standards known so far: polluters and greenhouse gases emitters.

Respostas aos desafios das mudanças climáticas em níveis locais

“…O conceito de vulnerabilidade deve ser entendido aqui como susceptibilidade de lugares, pessoas, ecossistemas, dentre outros, em relação a algum tipo de agravo, colocando em questão a capacidade dos sistemas humanos e naturais para responder aos riscos, como por exemplo, os eventos extremos ocasionados pelas mudanças climáticas (ACSELRAD, 2006;MARANDOLA JR. e HOGAN, 2006). Barbi (2014), em sua revisão deste conceito, destaca três pontos importantes: grau de exposição ao perigo, susceptibilidade ao risco e (in)capacidade de adaptação frente à materialização do risco (MOSER, 1998;ACSELRAD, 2006;DE SHERBININ et al, 2007;VALENCIO et al, 2009;OJIMA, 2009). Anthony Giddens (2009) emprega uma lista de conceitos que podem ser utilizados para a avaliação de política para as mudanças climáticas.…”

“…Fonte: elaborado pelo autor a partir deZHAO, 2011;CORTESE, 2013;BARBI, 2014; SALDIVA e COELHO, 2014. *ICLEI: Governos Locais pela Sustentabilidade; **C40: Grupo de Liderança Climática.…”