From mud to chaos: the backsliding of Brazil's environmental policy and leadership under the Bolsonaro administration

Climate change is a transnational challenge that has increasingly demanded the cooperation of international actors on the issue since the end of the 20th century. From the beginning of the 1990s, Brazil made efforts to promote itself as a relevant player in environmental discussions. With the inauguration of the Bolsonaro government in January 2019, there is a new moment in the country's environmental trajectory, with relevant implications for the future of Brazil's environmental policy and leadership. This paper reconstructs the main events in terms of environmental policy in the first two years of the Bolsonaro administration, in order to identify the dimensions of its environmental policy and how they impact the Brazilian position in the international climate change regime.