The EF-170 or Ferrogrão is a “greenfield” railway project connecting the 933km that separate the towns of Sinop (Mato Grosso state) and Itaituba (Pará state).

Since the beginning of this pandemic, several International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have committed to contribute to the global fight against COVID-19. According to statements from the IFIs themselves, investments in the year 2020 were supposed to direct aid and other support to those most vulnerable and impacted by the pandemic.

However, the study “Investments of International Financial Institutions in Brazil in 2020: Was there support to combat the COVID-19 pandemic?” shows that the projects of these institutions, for the most part, did not include direct transfer of income to people that are facing hunger, the buying of medicines, or the support for hospitals and ICUs.

Taking the Ten Year Expansion Plan for Energy (PDE 2030) and the National Energy Plan (PNE 2050) as a basis, the advances, risks and limitations of the proposed trajectories for electric and energy expansion are addressed.

The text highlights the government’s lack of articulation to implement long-term plans for the improvement of the national matrix, as well as the efforts in the legislative scope to attack the environmental licensing rules in force, which is fundamental to guarantee the protection of territorial rights in areas of exploration of renewable, non-fossil sources. 

This policy brief also refers the compensation of the shrinking use of oil in the energy matrix by natural gas, and of sugar cane by wind and solar energy, soybeans biodiesel, and lye. A very sensitive point identified is the introduction of soy as a raw material for the manufacture of biofuels, which lights up a warning from the socio-environmental and climatic point of view.

Environmental degradation and attack of the ways of life of native peoples, traditional and peasant communities are consequences of this model of economic exploitation. This scenario contributes to the consolidation of Pará as the subnational unit with the highest level of greenhouse gas emissions derived from changes in land use and the allocation of areas for cattle ranching and agriculture in the country.

This policy brief warns about the reformulation of the pilot program sent to the Green Climate Fund under the Bolsonaro government. In this reformulation, the purposes, scope and beneficiaries of the program were altered, promoting a change in the nature of the program from public policy to market incentive. The result is the redirection of internationally uncertified carbon credits for domestic markets.

The position paper analyzes the impact of the Bi-regional Association Agreements between Mercosur and the European Union and Mercosur and the European Free Trade Association, which aim to promote trade liberalization between the blocks in different economic sectors. The document suggests the interruption of the ratification of the Agreements since, besides the potential negative socio-environmental and climate impacts they present, they have been discussed behind closed doors, without the participation of civil society and other international observers. Besides the democratic issue, the text highlights the neocolonial character of the agreements based on the stimulus to deepen the international division of trade, as well as its consequences for economic development and human rights.

The Amazon Council is not capable of delivering what was promised; nor militarization helps to solve the problem. To the extent that this branch has served the dismantle Brazilian environmental policy,(i) eliminating internationally recognized programs,(ii) removing and chasing public servants and (iii) draining important resources from the Environment to Defense, it contributes to the devastation of Brazilian biomes. Learn more:

The study “Incentives and Subsidies to Fossil Fuels in Brazil in 2019: Identify, Evaluate, Reform”, published by Inesc (Institute of Socioeconomic Studies), calculates the amounts of incentives and subsidies to production and consumption of fossil fuels in Brazil through a methodology developed by Inesc.

In Brazil, in 2019, such incentives and subsidies reached the amount of US$ 25,08 billion (R$ 99.39 billion). This represented 1.36% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019. In the same year, for example, this amount was equivalent to three years of the Bolsa Família Program (US$ 7,6 billions – R$ 33.1 billion in the 2019
budget) and to almost 29 times the total budget of the Ministry of Environment (US$ 861,1 million – R$ 3.44 billion in the 2019 budget).

This is the third edition of this study, and an increase in the amount of incentives provided to the sector compared to the previous year has been observed for the second time.

Access to Medicines Thematic Budget (OTMED): 10-year review of federal resources for pharmaceutical assistance. Study presents evaluation of financial executions of the Ministry of Health with medicines from 2008 to 2018.

In 2018, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) set out to learn more about budget credibility – the degree to which governments implement their budgets. Budget credibility challenges arise all over the world, in a wide range of sectors and programs. This report summarizes budget credibility research undertaken in partnership with 24 civil society organizations in 23 countries between October 2018 and January 2019. Each partner organization identified a budget credibility challenge in their country and scrutinized a case where the government consistently failed to raise or spend funds as it said it would at the start of the fiscal year. Partners looked for explanations for deviations in published documents and then sought interviews with public officials to further understand the deviations.

The example from Brazil,  explanation of underspending on women’s programs, was the subject of investigation by INESC.

Inesc study reveals total destined to the oil, gas and coal sectors through tax exemption, special tax regimes and even guaranteed budget. With this publication, we continue the work started in 2018, when we present the balance of subsidies applied between 2013 and 2017 in the sector, with the objective of knowing, evaluating and reforming possible distortions in this scenario.