Abstract
The article analyzes the international engagement of Brazilian subnational governments in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda during the first year of the Bolsonaro’s government with an emphasis on the role of states in supporting the environmental axis. We argue that subnational governments have been strongly active in defending this agenda, unlike the federal government, generating foreign policy tensions. Therefore, the research analyzes the performance of these actors in the scope of the Northeast and the Legal Amazon Consortia.
Highlights
The approval of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) initiated a debate regarding new ways to address underdevelopment by incorporating a sustainable perspective
For countries with a federalist political structure, the implementation of the SDGs demanded coordination with their subnational governments, as it was the case of Brazil
As political polarization increased in Brazil with the presidential election of Jair Bolsonaro in late 2018, we were able to observe a conflict between national and subnational governments in the country relating to the SDGs
Summary
While in Brazil, the governors met with ambassadors from the European Union in October to discuss the agenda for sustainable development and financing possibilities, as highlighted by the announcement by the president of the Amazon Consortium: “today we are at the second meeting with the ambassadors of Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom. In the case of Brazilian governors, even the search for the recovery of the Amazon Fund that could be considered a paradiplomatic action represents a position contrary to the federal government that refuses to resume negotiations with donor countries, highlighting the need for the literature to explore the gray area between paradiplomacy and protodiplomacy.
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