The European Union and Brazil in the Quest for Global Climate Governance: Potentials and Perils of a Partnership

The EU and Brazil share an interest in building an effective international climate-change regime. For an effective partnership to be promoted, at least three main conditions should be met. First, there must be a minimum degree of compatibility of agendas and interests. Second, more effective instruments should be devised to strengthen cooperation at the bilateral level. Third, the partners need to prioritize their partnership at the multilateral level over other alliance options. If it fails to meet these three conditions, cooperation between the EU and Brazil on global climate governance can hardly become truly strategic.

Revised version of a paper presented at the international conference “Meeting the Challenges: Europe, Brazil and Global Governance”, organized in Brasilia on 6 December 2017 by the EU Delegation to Brazil.