Dryland adaptation in Northeast Brazil: Lessons from a community-based pilot project

Family farmers in Brazil’s semi-arid region (the Sertão) are highly vulnerable to climate change. In this context, the community-based Adapta Sertão (“adapt Sertão” or “adapt the Sertão”) pilot project aims to strengthen the adaptive capacity of such families in the region of Pintadas, State of Bahia, through integration of immediate livelihood needs with community empowerment and market-based incentives. This short paper discusses the project’s main components, its results and constraints since implementation in 2006. The project is found to have contributed to rural livelihood improvement of its beneficiaries, especially where related to local capacity building. However, the impacts of the strongest drought recorded in the last 50 years continue to affect beneficiaries. CBA in semiarid Brazil may thus need to interact more broadly with those public policies, plans and programs help reduce vulnerability to climatic, social, environmental and economic stressors in general, in order to help family farmers better to sustainably adapt to future climate change.Los agricultores familiares en la región semiárida de Brasil (Sertão) son muy vulnerables al cambio climático. En este contexto, el proyecto piloto basado en la comunidad Adapta Sertão («adaptar Sertão» o «adaptar la región de Sertão») está dirigido a fortalecer la capacidad de adaptación de dichas familias en la región de Pintadas, Estado de Bahía, a través de la integración de las necesidades de subsistencia inmediatas mediante capacitación de la comunidad e iniciativas basadas en el mercado. Este informe breve aborda los principales elementos del proyecto, sus resultados y limitaciones desde su implementación en 2006. Se ha descubierto que el proyecto ha contribuido a la mejora de las condiciones de subsistencia de sus beneficiarios en regiones rurales, en especial, en relación con la construcción de capacidades locales. No obstante, el impacto de la sequía más importante registrada en los últimos 50 años sigue afectando a los beneficiarios. De este modo, la CBA en la región semiárida de Brasil tendrá que interactuar en mayor profundidad con políticas, planes y programas para la reducción de la vulnerabilidad a factores de estrés climáticos, sociales, medioambientales y económicos en general, a fin de ayudar a los agricultores familiares a adaptarse de una forma más sostenible al cambio climático futuro.Les familles d'exploitants agricoles du Sertão, région semi-aride du Brésil, sont très vulnérables au changement climatique. Dans ce contexte, le projet pilote communautaire Adapta Sertão ("adapter le Sertão") vise à renforcer la capacité d'adaptation de ces familles dans la région de Pintadas, dans l'Etat de Bahia, par l'intégration des besoins de moyens de subsistance immédiats via l'autonomisation des communautés et des incitations commerciales. Ce court article expose les principaux éléments du projet, ses résultats et ses contraintes depuis sa mise en oeuvre en 2006. Ce projet a contribué à améliorer la vie rurale de ses bénéficiaires, en particulier concernant le développement des capacités locales. Toutefois, les conséquences de la plus forte sécheresse qu'ait connu le Brésil au cours de ces 50 dernières années, continuent d'affecter les bénéficiaires. L'adaptation communautaire dans les régions semi-arides du Brésil peut ainsi passer par une interaction à plus grande échelle avec ces politiques, plans et programmes publics visant à réduire la vulnérabilité aux facteurs de stress climatiques, sociaux, environnementaux et économiques en général, afin de faciliter l'adaptation des familles d'exploitants agricoles au changement climatique futur de manière durable

Report of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices

The purpose of this Commission is to explore explicit carbon-pricing options and levels that would induce the change in behaviors— particularly in those driving the investments in infrastructure, technology, and equipment—needed to deliver on the temperature objective of the Paris Agreement, in a way that fosters economic growth and development, as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This report does not focus on the estimation and evaluation of the climate change impacts that would be avoided by reducing carbon emissions. While the Commission also covers other policies relevant and important to carbon-pricing design and delivery on the Paris agreement, its primary focus is on pricing. This report has been prepared based on the Commission’s assessment of the available evidence and literature as well as on its members’ judgment, developed through their extensive international policy experience. While the commissioners are in broad agreement on the overall thrust of the arguments presented in the report, they may not necessarily support every single assertion and conclusion

Main assumptions for energy pathways

© The Author(s) 2019. The aim of this chapter is to make the scenario calculations fully transparent and comprehensible to the scientific community. It provides the scenario narratives for the reference case (5.0 °C) as well as for the 2.0 °C and 1.5 °C on a global and regional basis. Cost projections for all fossil fuels and renewable energy technologies until 2050 are provided. Explanations are given for all relevant base year data for the modelling and the main input parameters such as GDP, population, renewable energy potentials and technology parameters

Light vehicle energy efficiency programs and their impact on Brazilian CO2 emissions

This paper analyses the impact of an energy efficiency program for light vehicles in Brazil on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Several energy efficiency programs for light vehicles around the world are reviewed. The cases of Japan and Europe were selected for presentation here given their status as current and future world leaders in the control of passenger vehicle fuel consumption. The launching of the National Climate Change Plan and the pressure on the Brazilian car industry due to the world financial crisis make it a good time for the Brazilian government to implement such a program, and its various benefits are highlighted in this study. Three scenarios are established for Brazil covering the 2000-2030 period: the first with no efficiency goals, the second with the Japanese goals applied with a 10 years delay, and the third, with the Japanese goals applied with no delay. The consequences of a vehicular efficiency program and its middle and long-term effects on the consumption of energy and the CO2 emissions are quantified and discussed. The simulation results indicate that efficiency goals may make an important contribution to reducing vehicular emissions and fuel consumption in Brazil, compared to a baseline scenario.Energy efficiency programs CO2 emission abatement Flex-fuel cars

The Traditional Technological Approach and Social Technologies in the Brazilian Semiarid Region

There are different technological approaches to deal with the social-ecological adversities found in the Brazilian Semiarid region (BSA). They vary according to the interpretation of what the roots of these adversities and the causes of the resulting vulnerability are. This paper analyses two technological approaches to the BSA, the first provided by the government through public policies and the other driven by civil society. It focuses on the initiatives promoted by each approach during the 20th and 21st centuries, and discusses how they have enhanced or reduced the sustainability of the Brazilian Semiarid region. This assessment is based on document analysis, fieldwork and open/semi-structured interviews. The traditional technological approach did not reduce the social-ecological vulnerability of the BSA system or increase resilience of family farmers and of the deciduous forest, the most vulnerable parties. It has boosted development from a classical development perspective, promoting macro-infrastructure and growth, but also contributed to keep the same pattern of dependence of farmers. Social technologies have been promoting the BSA sustainability and can have a long-lasting impact if extensively applied. While the traditional approach mostly benefits large landowners, social technologies benefit family farmers, the deciduous forest and the entire social-ecological system

Evaluating Energy Policies through the Use of a Hybrid Quantitative Indicator-Based Approach: The Case of Mercosur

This paper evaluates the performance of energy policies in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), a regional initiative consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but also considering Venezuela (full member since mid-2012) and Bolivia (full participation under negotiation since 2015). The methodology is based on a qualitative-quantitative approach. First, we provide a critical review of the literature on energy security. Then, we carry out a comparative analysis of energy policies in Mercosur countries, concluding that there is no harmonization between them. Next, we offer the new concept of socio-environmental-energy security (SEES) as a more suitable approach to deal with current challenges, providing a hybrid quantitative indicator-based approach to the SEES index. Ergo, after defining the indicators, selecting the data, carrying out a normalization process, assigning weights and aggregating data points, the SEES composite index is generated. We suggest that energy integration can contribute to better regional performance in terms of energy policies and that the SEES index can guide policy makers and investments, replacing the old-fashioned concept of energy security

Biofuels and Sustainable Energy Development in Brazil

Summary Through the assessment of three decades of the Alcohol Program in Brazil, the paper shows that adequate public policies regarding biomass production can deliver direct benefits like energy security improvement, foreign exchange savings, and local employment generation, reduced urban air pollution and avoided CO2 emissions. Moreover, the paper shows that Brazilian produced ethanol has faced economies of scale, technical progress and productivity gains and is no longer dependent on subsidies to be competitive. The paper also examines the potential in Brazil for fostering other biofuels, namely biodiesel obtained from vegetable oils, as well as their implications on sustainable energy development.ethanol biodiesel biofuels biomass sustainable energy energy for the developing world

Sustainability assessment of best locations for waste printed circuit boards processing units: The Brazilian case

Abstract Waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCB) are sources of valuable elements. In most developing countries, the WPCBs of formal chains are exported to treatment overseas given the absence of proper recycling plants, transferring the high-added value to developed nations. This study proposed a method to identify the best locations to implement WPCB recycling facilities considering sustainability criteria. The method was applied to the Brazilian case and consisted of state and municipal levels analysis based on 11 indicators related to the three sustainability dimensions, logistics criteria and geoprocessing tools. The results suggested São Paulo state (SP) as the main pole for WPCB processing in Brazil, with an estimated potential of WPCB generation of almost 24 t/d, and São Caetano do Sul and Jundiaí as the main favourable WPCB recycling municipalities. This study demonstrated that sustainable logistics for WPCB value recovery in developing countries is possible and desirable for achieving more circular patterns

Emission inventory: An urban public policy instrument and benchmark

Global concern with climate change has led to the development of a variety of solutions to monitor and reduce emissions on both local and global scales. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), both developed and emerging countries have assumed responsibility for developing and updating national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions from anthropic sources. This creates opportunities and incentives for cities to carry out their own local inventories and, thereby, develop air quality management plans including both essential key players and stakeholders at the local level. The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of local inventories as an urban public policy instrument and how this type of local instrument may bring advantages countrywide in enhancing the global position of a country. Local inventories have been carried out in many cities of the world and the main advantage of this is that it allows an overview of emissions produced by different municipal activities, thereby, helps decision makers in the elaboration of efficient air quality management plans. In that way, measures aimed at the reduction of fossil fuel consumption to lower local atmospheric pollution levels can also, in some ways, reduce GHG emissions.Greenhouse gases Municipalities Inventory