ABSTRACT
To better understand the role of Brazil in the international political economy of climate change, it is necessary to take a look at some of its key economic and political features. As we will show in the following chapters, the path dependence of Brazil’s energy development; its economic policy choices (e.g., whether or not to subsidize the oil industry); the government’s search for congressional support (e.g., giving the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, or MAPA) over to the agri-business sector); and the country’s foreign policy doctrine (i.e., the idea of Brazil as a major global player in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration) tend to affect the level of climate commitment during each period under study. In the following pages, we will analyze the situation of the country in the global carbon cycle, examine the major characteristics of its political system and its economy, and elaborate on its international insertion profile.
