Hard Cases for Climate Policy: Australia and Brazil

Australia is perhaps the fifth largest national contributor to global warming if emissions from its domestic and exported fossil fuels are taken into account and Brazil is also a leading emitter and the main location of the world’s largest natural carbon sink, the Amazon Rainforest. These nations both have weak national mitigation and adaptation policies at the moment. Why? Professor Peter Christoff of the University of Melbourne presents “Australian Climate Policies: paradox, contradiction and crisis,” and Professors Joana Castro Pereira of the Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais (IPRI) and Eduardo Viola of the University of Brasilia present “Neither mitigator nor adapter: Climate neglect and denial in a vulnerable Brazil (2013-2021).” The panel discussed what such hard cases may tell us about how to design and implement climate mitigation and adaptation policies.