Do Non-State Actors Influence Climate Change Policy? Evidence from the Brazilian Nationally Determined Contributions for COP21

Participation in democratic regimes has been a central issue in foreign policy (FP) studies. This article seeks to contribute to the empirical discussion about FP participation through the analysis of the public consultation process conducted by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with non-sta...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elia Elisa Cia Alves, Rodrigo Barros de Albuquerque, Marcos Alan Ferreira, Cláudio Alves Monteiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2022-04-01
Series:Journal of Politics in Latin America
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X211034187
Description
Summary:Participation in democratic regimes has been a central issue in foreign policy (FP) studies. This article seeks to contribute to the empirical discussion about FP participation through the analysis of the public consultation process conducted by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with non-state actors in the context of the preparations for the Paris Climate Agreement (2015). We employed automated text analysis using Python and R qualifying open responses submitted to the questionnaire launched at the first round of the consultations process and comparing them to the official document presented by Brazil establishing its own carbon emission targets. We found that the Brazilian academia members had a relevant influence on the content of the final document presented by Brazil, strengthening the literature on the importance of the epistemic community to environmental politics and raising new questions on the paths of foreign policy influence.
ISSN:1866-802X
1868-4890