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According to a study launched by the Iyaleta Research Association, Brazil needs to advance its climate adaptation agenda

“Complex problems demand collective solutions” is how climate change has been addressed in scientific and social contexts. Reducing global temperature warming to 1.5°C has implications and has gained attention in the media, politics, and research, whether in universities or research associations, driven mainly by specialized global events. 

For the past three years, researchers from the Iyaleta Research Association, in partnership with the Climate and Society Institute (iCS), have been conducting studies on urban inequalities in the capitals of the Legal Amazon region. At the last Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, at the Brazil Climate HUB, the Iyaleta Research Association launched the “Summary Strategies for National Adaptation Plans: a case study from Brazilian,” a study that points out pathways for climate adaptation in the Global South, based on the Brazilian scenario. The study is available in Portuguese and English on the Association’s website. 

The summary focuses on urban inequalities in the capitals of the North and Northeast regions, with an intersectional analysis considering the structural determinants of ethnic-racial, gender, and territorial factors and their impact on health conditions, given the effects of climate change on cities and the lack of effectiveness in revising the National Climate Adaptation Plan (Plano Nacional de Adaptação – PNA, in Portuguese) (2016). 

The summary is part of a set of studies from the project “Climate Adaptation: an intersection Brazil (2022-2024)”, which is part of the research line “Inequalities and Climate Change.” The geographer Diosmar M. de Santana Filho and the epidemiologists Andrêa Ferreira and Emanuelle Góes, all researchers from the Iyaleta Research Association, authored the study. 

“In the 21st century, societies on a global scale face a great challenge, which is to recognize and care for humanity by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG),” write the researchers in the summary’s introduction. “But for this to happen, it will be necessary to align with strategies to eliminate racial, gender, social inequalities and related oppressions in territories already impacted and affected by climate change,” they add. 

The six chapters present analyses of “Inequalities and climate change in the North and Northeast regions,” “Socio-spatial analysis of inequalities and climate change for adaptation,” “Urban dimensions and the revision of Brazil’s National Adaptation Plan,” “Planned adaptation: a challenge in the context of subhuman ordering,” “Adaptation as a climate public policy,” and “Adaptation: basic sanitation and health conditions.” 

In the seventh chapter, the Iyaleta Research Association highlights “Zero Inequalities: Southern Global Adaptation,” proposing strategies for adaptation pathways based on transparency and capacity building, contributing to the effectiveness of policies and financing for adaptation based on GHG emissions reduction and elimination of inequalities, following Article 7 of the Paris Agreement and the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities” from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 

 

Giselly Corrêa Barata, Iyaleta undergraduate research assistant