The last 30 years have consolidated the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) as an essential forum for finding solutions to the climate and environmental crisis. Commitments to transition to a low-carbon economy have historically faced resistance from powerful economic groups associated with greenhouse gas-emitting sectors. But this opposition has acquired a new profile over the last decade, beginning to manifest itself explicitly at the political level as well. In this new context, politicization subjects the climate agenda to the alternation of powers and the will of current governments, thus posing a serious threat to its stability and survival.
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The United States and Brazil have become examples of this new trend. Donald Trump’s first administration led to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the weakening of US climate policy. Under Joe Biden, these commitments were taken up and the government promoted the largest climate investment in American history. Trump’s return to the presidency has had far more serious impacts on the climate agenda than during his first term. More powerful than before, he aggressively dismantled the green policies implemented by his predecessor, favoring sectors that emit greenhouse gases and breaking international commitments. As expected, the Trump administration boycotted COP30.
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Brazil’s recent experience bears strong similarities to that of the United States. The Bolsonaro government, a global warming denier, was responsible for a program promoting environmental devastation. Between 2019 and 2022, deforestation in the Amazon increased by 60%, according to Inpe, and environmental inspection bodies, such as Ibama and ICMBio, were hollowed out. With Lula returning to the presidency in 2023, the climate and environmental crisis is once again attracting the attention of the federal government. The environmental inspection bodies abolished by his predecessor have been recovered and deforestation has shown a cumulative decline of 50% in the Amazon in 2025 compared to 2022. In addition, the Ecological Transformation Plan launched by the government represents an ambitious set of public policies aimed at the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Despite these general trends, the political divide around the climate agenda is not free of contradictions. In Brazil, a series of climate regulations have been integrated into the financial system under the Bolsonaro government. At the same time, the Lula government contradicts its environmental position by promoting oil exploration in the Brazilian equatorial margin.
Given these nuances, the politicization of the climate agenda has emerged as one of the crossroads of our time. Besides the United States and Brazil, it has gained international prominence, with countries around the world constantly under threat of periodic setbacks in implementing green policies. This is what we observe in Javier Milei’s Argentina, while negationist political forces proliferate in the European Union.
How to depoliticize the climate agenda? This is a subject that urgently needs to be included in the COP agenda, which is already experiencing impacts. The climate and environmental crisis is “democratic” and affects everyone, without any distinction of political preference. So it is neither rational nor politically intelligent for one side of the partisan spectrum to deny it.
*Pedro Lange Machado is a researcher at the International Postdoctoral Program of the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning
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