University of So Paulo

College of Public Health

INterdisciplinary CLimate INvestigation Center

Climate Change and Governance: a case of Sao Paulo

Juliana Pellegrini Cezare1,3, Ana Maria Bedran Martins1,4, Sonia Maria Viggiani Coutinho1, Arlindo Philippi Jr1, Hans Michael Van Bellen2
(1) University of So Paulo, (2) University of Santa Catariana
(3) jpc@usp.br / (4) bedran.ana@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION

GOVERNANCE

Nowadays in a modern world it's seen that in one side it exist science and technology
advances with a significant progress related to development based on sustainable bases.
Whereas in the other side, issues such as problems caused by the new consumption
pattern and increase of the income as well as environmental degradation, increase of
poverty and unbalanced population are getting even worst. The current discussion about
such a scenario its been based on the thematic of climate changes and its impact on
economy and society which eventually are going to be more visible at the developed
countries because of their geographic and economic characteristics, without forget their
social vulnerability situation. Thus, the way out is to build an specific strategy to
implement an effective actions at the public spheres. The debate about adaptation to the
climate changes has to be included both into the politic schedule as well as by the society
overall. Improve institutional capacity and governance is important to foster the adaptive
capacity to climate change, as it ensures the participation, transparency, access to
information and trust between the actors involved. Thus, the promotion of adaptive
capacity to climate change across governance has a central tool in seeking to maximize
strategies for society as a whole. However, its been observed that the initiatives are not
considering the whole complexity that the theme is requiring, most of the parts involved
are only discussing about reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, forgetting to
consider other factors such as urban planning, basic infrastructure, high risk areas and
etc. Therefore, the proposal of this research is to develop a tool that inserts the
governance model needed into the adaptation required, in regards to the climate
changes, in order to subsidize integrated public politics for the city of So Paulo. This
paper presents the first stage of the project which is the diagnostic phase which aims to
compare the municipal political landscape of So Paulo to the theoretical framework of
governance factors and adaptative capacity.

METHODOLOGY
The study is classified as qualitative and exploratory. At this stage of diagnosis, the
study methodology involves literature and documents.
The governance factors used to analyze the adaptive capacity of the climate change
policy of Sao Paulo are shown in the figure below:

The issue of governance is approached from the perspective of negotiation between

different interests that makes possible to integration the environmental dimension in the
process of social and economic decision making to produce the strengthening of public
policies that guarantee development on a sustainable basis. Thus environmental
governance refers to the set of initiatives, rules and processes that enable the distribution
of power between those who govern and those who not govern ensuring social control
(MILANI E SOLINS, 2002; LEMOS E AGRAWAL, 2006; JACOBI E ALMEIDASINISGALLI, 2012).
In practice, when we speak of adaptive governance, the challenge is to create
institutional arrangements that help establish the following conditions: i) allocation of
adequate information for the decision maker understanding; ii) conflict management
stakeholders - conflict resolution is as important as the institutional resources; iii)
Compliance with rules and norms legitimized by the actors involved in the management of
resources - including the use of economic instruments complementary to command and
control; iv) availability of physical, social, institutional and technological infrastructure; and
v) institutional flexibility, coupled with the ability to learn and rethink rules and regulations
according to the environmental changes (DIETZ, OSTROM, STERN, 2003).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Observe that since the year 2009, with the enactment of Municipal Policy on Climate
Change, the city of So Paulo has some institutional apparatus for governance, such as:
Emission of greenhouse gases inventory; Sectoral actions in the areas of transport,
energy, construction, solid waste management, health, land use planning; and Climate
Change Committee and Eco-economy with representatives of municipal and state
governments and civil society, between these representatives of international nongovernmental organizations, universities and the productive sector, institutes and unions.
When comparing the factors of governance JOHNS (2012) with the Municipal Climate
Change Policy of So Paulo and the researches of CORTESE (2013) and BACK (2012), it
appears that the city of Sao Paulo has gaps in the structure of governance department.
The municipal policy aims to mitigate greenhouse gases, does not provide mechanisms
and tools for adaptation. This may explain why the 56 policy measures in only 10.7% were
implemented, 50% are in progress and the rest is not expected to be implemented (Figure
2)

Figure 1: Relationship among resources and governance factors contributing to adaptive capacity (source: JOHNS, 2012)

1. Resources are necessary in order to have participation aong actors (opportunity and transaction costs
2. Representative participation enables negotiation among actors and conflict management
3. Mediated and negotiated goals promote integration of institutions and issues
4. Coordination of roles and responsabilities leads to working together on common goals
5. Financial resource are necessary to develop knowledge, information and monitoring systems.
Knowledge feeds back to streng then human resources and better understanding of
technical/infrastructure resources
6. Equal access to knowledge improves participation among actors. Active democratic participation
expands the consideration of multiple types of knowledge
7. Knowledge and information inform the negotiation process and managing conflict. The negotiation
process can refine how different type of knowledge and information related in order to develop shared
views and social learning
8. Integration of agencies allows for information sharing and diffusion. Knowledge and information are
necessary to coordinate agency actions on various issues across scales

Figure 2: Relationship among resources and governance factors contributing to adaptive capacity of Sao Paulo

The analysis shows that is necessary to invest in all governance factors to ensure greater
adaptive capacity of the municipality forward climate change. Thus, the next stage of
research is to analyze why the governance factors provided are insufficient and how they
can be improved, and identify the existing administrative structure of governance factors
that were not anticipated by the municipal policy that may contribute to the adaptive
capacity of the city of So Paulo forward climate change.
BACK, A. G. Agenda climtica do municpio de So Paulo: contribuio de redes transnacionais de governos locais. Teoria & Pesquisa Revista de Cincia Poltica, vol. 21, n. 2, p. 97-107,
2012.
CORTESE, T.T.P. Mudanas climticas na cidade de So Paulo: avaliao da poltica pblica municipal. 2013. Tese (Doutorado em Sade Ambiental) - Faculdade de Sade Pblica,
Universidade de So Paulo, So Paulo, 2013. Disponvel em: <http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/6/6134/tde-31072013-105505/>. Acesso em: 2014-04-23.

APOIO

DIETZ, T.; OSTROM, E.; STERN, P. Struggle to Govern the Commons. Science, n.302, p. 1907-1912, 2003. DOI: 10.1126/science.1091015

WORKS CITED

JACOBI, P. R., BARBI, F. Democracia e participao na gesto dos recursos hdricos no Brasil. Rev. Ktal., Florianpolis, v.10, n.2, p.237-244, 2007.
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Environment at the University of Michigan)
LEMOS, M. C., AGRAWAL, A. Environmental Governance. Annu. Ver. Environ. Resourc., v.31, p.297-325, 2006. Doi: 10.1146/annurev.energy.31.042605.135621
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