Abstract
Climate change is the biggest global threat of our time. As a signatory nation of the Paris Agreement, Brazil has made a climate action commitment, and expressed its nationally determined contribution to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 37%. The Brazilian population is highly urban, and Brazilian cities are mostly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, and the worst effects of global warming are experienced in cities. Hence, the fulfillment of the Brazilian climate commitments depends on the active engagement of municipalities. Nevertheless, the Brazilian national government does not monitor local climate actions, and it is not clear how local urban policy is aligned with climate action. In order to bridge this gap, this study tackles the question of: “Are, and if yes how, cities considering the climate emergency in their local planning mechanisms?” This question is investigated by placing five major Brazilian cities under the microscope. The methodological approach includes literature review and applied qualitative analysis to scrutinize how climate issues and actions are factored in urban planning regulations to verify if and to what extent local policies contribute to the fulfillment of the Brazilian nationally determined contribution, and sustainable development goals. The results disclose that investigated cities have adequately incorporated climatic issues in their urban planning mechanisms. However, policy concentrates more on adaptation rather than mitigation, and policy implementation yet to be realized.
Highlights
The Anthropocene, a geological era of human domination on Earth’s resources, has generated many complex problems that threaten the well-being and existence of many species—including the human kind [1,2]
The aim of this study is to examine how cities, and cities in the global south (an emerging term used by the World Bank to refer to countries located in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean and considered to have low- and middle-income levels [30]), are considering the climate emergency in their local planning mechanisms
The study selects Brazil as a relevant country context from the global south—with vast land, large population, pristine natural assets, and a big appetite for economic growth—to explore how well local urban policy is aligned with climate action [31]
Summary
The Anthropocene, a geological era of human domination on Earth’s resources, has generated many complex problems that threaten the well-being and existence of many species—including the human kind [1,2]. During the last few years, various solutions have been put forward to combat the problem, targeting the unsustainable urban development and cleaner production [8,9,10]. Energies 2019, 12, 3418 include adopting new development paradigms to make cities more sustainable, resilient, and smarter—e.g., smart city and smart urbanism movements [10,11]—and incentivizing green technology and cleaner industrial development [12,13,14]. The solutions targeting more sustainable urbanization and industrialization with limited emissions have not found wider application grounds across the globe, and existing initiatives were not efficient enough to make a significant difference [15,16]
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