From Global Agreements to Local Actions on Climate Change: Translation and Implementation of the ABC Plan and Program

Abstract

The thesis analyzes how the global climate agreements were translated by the Brazilian agribusiness actors in the construction of the Sectoral Plan for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change for the Consolidation of a Low Carbon Economy in Agriculture (Plan ABC). For that, 70 actors linked to the construction and implementation of that public policy, and used the translation references and implementation of public policies, were interviewed. In terms of results, the thesis demonstrates that global climate agreements had an influence on the Brazilian context, where internal institutional issues, actors involved and their interpretations shaped the process of translating the country's climate change agenda. Incremental changes can be seen in Brazil, which goes from denying the climate agenda to its acceptance, defense and incorporation into public policy. The construction of ABC Plan involved some “early translation” of ideas from the international to the national context. Interpreted as an opportunity for the resignification of Brazilian agriculture, agribusiness actors defined a strategy in advance and participated in COP15 with a structured public policy proposal for low carbon agriculture. In contrast to the unidirectional transfer processes, the ABC Plan and Program result from a process of “two-way translation” from the international to the national level, strategically guided by Brazil. After “translated” into the national context, the ABC Plan and Program underwent (re) translations during their implementation, reaching the local spaces. If the ideas of greenhouse gas emission reduction were present at the time of formulation of the Plan and the Program, they do not match the interpretations and actions of the street level bureaucrats. They interpret the Program as “one more” line of credit, pointing to formal and bureaucratic issues that discourage access to this public policy. Additionally, the local characteristics and the discretionary power of the street level bureaucrats confer differences in implementation of the ABC Program in the states of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul. It is observed, therefore, an "interpretive distance" between the present ideas on the global scale and their translations into national and local scales.