In the last week, on May 22 and 23, Brasilia host a meeting between the G20 Financial Track Presidency and civil society organizations. The debates will be on international taxation. For the first time, the chair of the Track, led by Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, was willing to receive a document with eleven recommendations from civil society on the subject.

The proposals were drawn up by more than 40 national, Latin American and international organizations, which have been meeting since February. They all worked together to draw up the proposals for the G20 finance ministers.

For Nathalie Beghin, a member of the Management Board of Inesc (Institute for Socio-Economic Studies), the meeting provides an opportunity to open dialogues on solutions in the interests of people and the planet. “It’s important to build interactive spaces to channel demands and formulate proposals, guaranteeing accountability and social participation in international cooperation on fiscal policy,” says the expert, who was directly involved in drawing up the recommendations.

Access the full document with the Civil Society Recommendations on International Taxation for G20 Finance Ministers
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The 11 recommendations listed by civil society have been divided into three parts and can be summarized as follows:

International Tax Governance

1. Support the creation and implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UNFCITC).
2. Ensure civil society participation in tax debates and tax decision-making processes.

Overarching values and guiding principles

3. Incorporate human rights, socio environmental and climate obligations as overarching principles to guide and inform tax decision-making.
4. Decolonize standards on taxation by adopting criteria and measures which promote equity between countries, jurisdictions and regions, and compensate developmental differences and imbalances of power.
5. Incorporate a gender and race/ethnicity approach to tax policies to fight gender and race/ethnicity inequalit

Substantive reforms

6. Include in the UNFCITC the creation of a global minimum tax on the super-rich
7. Include in the UNFCITC the creation of a Financial Transactions Tax
8. Promote international tax cooperation to facilitate a just and equitable climate transition, including by fostering more equitable trade and investment globally.
9. Support multilateral taxes to finance climate, environmental and social justice.
10. Shift resources from tax incentives for fossil fuels to the fight against hunger, climate change, poverty and inequality, and to promote climate justice and just energy transition.
11. Enhance existing efforts on exchange of information and tax transparency, and work towards the creation of a Global Asset Registry within the UNFCITC.

The seminar organized by the Ministry of Finance, which will take place at the University of Brasilia, is being seen as a milestone in civil society organizations’ fight for tax justice, reflecting their commitment to influencing public policies in a meaningful and responsible way.

>> Access the full program of the Civil Society Meeting on G20 and International Taxation here <<

We introduce the advocacy initiative on tax justice, gender and race in Brazil, a collaboration between Inesc, the Tax Justice Network, Red de Justícia Fiscal de América Latina y El Caribe and Latinidadd.

This action consisted of delivering a shadow report and active participation in the 88th Session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to be held in May 2024. 

In the submitted document, we explore how austerity measures and regressive tax policies directly affect women’s rights in Brazil, especially black women. In addition, we situate the country within the context of global tax policy and the current negotiations at the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.

The Institute of Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) has been monitoring federal subsidies to fossil fuel since 2018, with the aim of promoting public debate on government support for the expansion of production and consumption of oil, natural gas, and mineral coal in Brazil.

In this publication, Inesc innovates by presenting, for the first time, subsidies to renewable sources with the aim of underscoring the importance of creating a policy of incentives for renewable sources based on principles of transparency, with governance and safeguards policies that put us on track towards an energy transition with social justice.

Access our interactive dashboard with data

The Territorial and Environmental Management Plans (PGTA) of Indigenous Lands are instruments built by Brazilian indigenous communities to systematize collective desires and commitments for territories and the good living of current and future generations. 

Despite their importance, the PGTA receive scarce funds for implementation, whether from the Brazilian state or other sources, such as international cooperation and philanthropy.

What is Monetary Policy and what does it have to do with human rights? What is the role of the Central Bank in our lives? Are there no better solutions for controlling inflation than raising interest rates? The answers to these and other questions, about the impact of economic measures on the lives of Brazilians, can be found in the pages of the “Illustrated Guide to Inflation, Monetary Policy and Human Rights”.

This didactic booklet, aimed at the general public, was written by Inesc’s policy advisor Livi Gerbase and by economist Pedro Rossi, a professor at Unicamp’s Institute of Economics. The material also features illustrations by the collective A Gazetinha.

The gradual departure from fossil fuel use toward energy transition is key for facing the climate crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC’s sixth report has highlighted how pressing it is to move toward ambitious emission cuts in the short term in order to have a chance to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 °C by the end of the 21st century: the world needs to reduce by 43% its emissions from coal, oil and natural gas burning by 2030, compared to 2019. However, moving in the opposite direction to this urgent matter, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD and the International Energy Agency – IEA, incentives to fossil fuels around the world almost doubles in 2021, reaching 697.2 billion dollars, a 92.4% increase compared to 2020.

In this context, we release the fifth edition of the study “Subsidies to fossil fuels: know, assess and reform”, with data for the year 2021. Despite having a relatively clean energy and electricity matrix, Brazil has a strong structure of subsidies to fossil fuels, which encourages both production and consumption of oil, natural gas and mineral coal in the country.

In 2016, Brazil submitted its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement. The NDCs state the targets for reduction of gas emissions responsible for intensifying the greenhouse effect. The targets are compulsory and must progress at each NDC submitted.

This study analyzes the NDCs drafted by the Brazilian government with regards to the energy sector, which counts on sectoral planning, plans, policy instruments and regulation, including transparency mechanisms.

The goal is to present society with a clear view of Brazil’s efforts and its level of compliance with the Paris Agreement targets. The report produced is part of the “Tracing the link between Climate Justice Action & the NDCs” – CIDSE Energy-NDC Task Force, Climate and Energy project 2021-2022” initiative, conducted by Fastenaktion, in partnership with the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies – INESC, which assesses the Brazilian case.