Putting in Check the Brazilian Moves in the Climate Chessboard

Abstract

This paper discusses Brazil’s role in climate governance, methodologically and metaphorically comparing it to chess pieces moves, based on national and regional official documents, commitments and data. Unlike other IR studies, our proposal suggests different behaviours at different levels of analysis for the same country. Nationally, the country played the role of pawn. Regionally, there is no unitary behaviour: in international cooperation (carbon pricing case), it moves like a queen; in the regional integration process (energy integration case), like a king. The current scenario raises doubts about these roles, suggesting that Brazil has been presenting an increasingly moderate and conservative behaviour in the past years.