This edition of Panorama Internacional FEE addresses the environmental debate on a global level. In this sense, the authors’objective is to discuss the multilateral articulation efforts that aim at the construction of an international regime for facing the adverse effects of climate change on life in general and on the ways societies are organized. The main challenges concern the dilemmas related to the conciliation of agendas linked to the promotion of the countries’ economic development and the preservation of the environment.
Despite the repercussions of the unilateral decision of the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, some other countries have stated that the international community is, to some extent, committed to a common environmental agenda. However, in this scenario, Brazil has given demonstrations that cast doubt on its real alignment with the global efforts in the environmental area. In this perspective, the recent decision of the Brazilian Federal Court to suspend the action against the mining company Samarco, responsible for the biggest environmental disaster in the country’s history, calls everyone’s attention. Moreover, in August, the Federal Government authorized, through a presidential decree, the extinction of a national reserve in the Amazon, the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca), so as to enable mining activity in an area as big as Denmark.
At the state level, the situation is alarming. Regarding the state’s water issue, the geography researcher at the Economics and Statistics Foundation (FEE) Mariana Pessoa observes that: “The State collects only 31.2% of the waste produced and treats less than 13% of it, for this reason, it hosts three of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country — Sinos, Gravataí and Caí —, all located in the Metropolitan Area of Porto Alegre (RMPA), supplying water for more than 1.5 million people.” Although agriculture accounts for about 10% of the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the researcher notes that the sector uses 78% of the water available in the state. It is necessary to emphasize that the impact of the use of pesticides in the state’s crops is devastating for the maintenance of the soil, the water sources and the whole ecosystem. In addition to reinforcing the centrality of the water issue in various inter-state conflicts and in policies for the development of societies, the researcher points out some of the main challenges related to water management at the federal and state levels. Thus, her discussion tackles the evaluation of the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of Law No. 9,433/1997, also known as the Water Law, which instituted the National Water Resources Policy (PNRH) and the National System for Water Resources Management.
Bruno Jubran, international relations researcher, provides an overview of the main debates regarding the multilateral coordination of the countries in tackling the adverse effects of climate change. Based on the Stockholm Conference (1972) and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992), the author highlights three main global regimes for monitoring and addressing climate change: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. In light of the United States’ unilateral exit from the Paris Agreement, Jubran also discusses the contradictions inherent in the complex conciliation of agendas for sustainable development involving countries with marked economic and social asymmetries.
In this perspective, researcher Tarson Nuñes specifically evaluates the unilateral decision of the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. In addition to the personal impressions of President Donald Trump on climate change, the political scientist discusses the impact of the position of the current US government on the public opinion of the country in relation to the global environmental issue. In this sense, the researcher highlights the strong divide between the lobby of traditional mining and fossil fuel industries — in support of the Government’s stance — and the influential movements of civil society and technology-intensive industries that oppose the country’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
Although the causes of global warming are a point of contention among experts, economics researcher Jaques Bensussan argues that there is a consolidated understanding that we are actually living on a warmer planet whose levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) are 30% higher than those of late 19th century. Thus, based on the definition of the opposite fields of this debate, on the traditional fossil fuel industry and on the emerging renewable energy sector, the researcher analyzes and compares the energy matrixes of the countries that are in the center of this debate: the United States, China and Brazil.
As a way of discussing and deepening the themes covered throughout the texts, the Panorama International FEE interviewed Dr. Catherine Tinker, Associate Professor at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, where she teaches international law and international environmental law. Dr. Tinker is the founder and representative of the Tinker Institute on International Law and Organizations (TIILO) at the United Nations Headquarters, New York City. TIILO is a non-governmental organization accredited to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which is dedicated to research and education in the areas of international law, policies and organizations.
It is within this scenario of advances and setbacks in the field of combating the effects of climate change that the Panorama International FEE launches another series of thematic studies. This new edition marks the second anniversary of the publication, which has already addressed eight other international themes equally relevant to Brazil and the State of Rio Grande do Sul: exports, oil, the 25th anniversary of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur), migratory flows, the United States, China, mega trade agreements and the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union. Thus, in this spirit of celebration, we wish: long live Panorama International FEE and Rio Grande do Sul’s Foundation of Economics and Statistics!
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