To be – or not to be – a low-carbon economy: a decade of climate politics in Brazil

The Ability to Influence: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Advocacy Coalitions in Brazilian Climate Politics

“…Second, I expect political and institutional parameters, like the formal rules of the political game (Sabatier, ), the policy subsystems' distinct institutional traditions (Gupta, ), and the political system's informal structures and political‐cultural practices (Steinberg, ), to constitute barriers and drivers of climate‐policy change. One important political parameter in Brazil, although not unique to Brazil's political system, is that societal interest groups often succeed in getting representatives elected for political and administrative positions, and the divisions between formal and informal policy makers are rather blurry (Aamodt, ; Hochstetler & Keck, ).…”

“…Brazil's political system is built on a tripartite separation of powers between the two branches of Congress (the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies) and the directly elected president. The combination of federalism, open‐list proportional representation, high turnover in political positions, strong ties between economic and political elites, and office‐ and rent‐seeking politicians and political “parties for hire” has resulted in a highly fragmented party system, where the president must form a coalition government to get a majority in Congress (Aamodt, ; Melo, ; Palermo, ; Viola & Franchini, ). Ministries usually prepare policies and are Congress members' main information sources on policy issues (Aamodt, ).…”

“…The policy process to reduce deforestation from 2003 onward is well studied, and although only Aamodt () explicitly uses the ACF terms, the establishment of coalitions, coalition member cooperation, and core beliefs in the policy debate are well documented (see e.g., Hochstetler & Keck, ; Carvalho, ; Hochstetler & Viola, ; Kasa, ; Sauer & França, ; Viola & Franchini, ). Brazil established a national environmental agency in 1973, and converted it to a ministry in 1985, the new democratic regime's first year (Hochstetler, ).…”

“…The Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment and the Development (Fórum Brasileiro de ONGs e Movimentos Sociais para o Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, FBOMS) had been established with more than 500 affiliated entities already in 1990, and in 2002 four large NGOs (The Nature Conservancy [TNC], the Amazon Environmental Research Institute [IPAM], Amigos da Terra Amazônia Brasileira, and ProNatura) took the initiative to create the umbrella organization Observatório do Clima (OC) together with 22 other organizations, among them the well‐known NGOs Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), the WWF, and Greenpeace (FBOMS, ; OC, ) . Toward the mid‐2000s, the coalition grew to include indigenous peoples' groups; green politicians; labor unions; leading scientists from public research institutes such as the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), journalists; and persons in high administrative and political positions in the government, mainly in the MMA (Aamodt, ; Carvalho, ; FBOMS, ; Hochstetler & Keck, ; interview 8; OC, ). The climate coalition members share the core beliefs that mitigation of environmental degradation and climate change should be prioritized in all policy decisions, and that Brazil has better capacity and opportunities to establish such priorities than many countries do (Aamodt, ; FBOMS, ; interviews 3, 5, 6, 10, 12).…”

“…Toward the mid‐2000s, the coalition grew to include indigenous peoples' groups; green politicians; labor unions; leading scientists from public research institutes such as the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), journalists; and persons in high administrative and political positions in the government, mainly in the MMA (Aamodt, ; Carvalho, ; FBOMS, ; Hochstetler & Keck, ; interview 8; OC, ). The climate coalition members share the core beliefs that mitigation of environmental degradation and climate change should be prioritized in all policy decisions, and that Brazil has better capacity and opportunities to establish such priorities than many countries do (Aamodt, ; FBOMS, ; interviews 3, 5, 6, 10, 12). The coordination between coalition members is both informal through, for instance, friends and former colleagues sharing information and meeting in social settings, and formal through, for instance, umbrella organizations, cosigning letters, co‐authoring publications, and hosting events (FBOMS, Observatório do Clima, & Rede Mata Atlântica, ; interviews 3, 8; Moutinho & Schwartzman, ; NGO letter, ; OC, ; Silva et al, ).…”