Abstract
The article addresses climate governance in the context of Brazilian cities, through public adaptation policies. The justification for the research is the fact that cities are home to the urban population, which, in addition to being the largest part of the world population, will be more directly impacted by climate change. The research problem is to analyze how cities should act and the cost of acting in the face of the need for adaptive policies in the context of the climate emergency. The general objective is to analyze the impasse in local climate governance for cities. In this vein, the article presents three specific objectives: a) to highlight that cities are obliged to act within the climate agenda; b) reveal the neoliberal logic as responsible for the current failure of climate governance in cities and c) present an alternative for cities based on the polycentric approach to climate governance. The method adopted is based on the polycentric approach to climate governance, which advocates collaborative action between state and non-state entities, and in the sphere of public power, the interaction between federative entities is highlighted. It is considered as the most adequate methodological way to understand how Brazilian cities try to face local climate governance problems.
Keywords:
Brazilian cities; climate emergency; climate governance; neoliberalism; polycentric approach