Navigating Brazil's Green Revolution: Harry Verhoeven on the Political Economy of Low-Carbon Leadership

In this interview, we delve into the insights of Harry Verhoeven, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, who has dedicated over 15 years to studying the international politics surrounding water, energy, and food. His latest research project, funded by one of Climate Hub Rio's first-round awards, focuses on the political economy of green innovation in Brazil—a country rich in biodiversity and resources, eager to position itself as a leader in global environmental discussions. Verhoeven shares his journey from examining challenges in Africa and the Middle East to addressing similar issues in Latin America, emphasizing Brazil's potential to navigate its unique political landscape in pursuit of a lower-carbon economy.

Read the full interview below to explore his perspectives and findings.

Question: Can you provide an overview of your research project and its main objectives?

Answer: Given my deep curiosity about political struggles around the environment in and between developing states, it is only natural for me to turn my attention to Latin America where many of the questions that I have long examined in Africa and the Middle East are also very salient- but manifest themselves in different ways and with different consequences for governments and ordinary people. 

Brazil is the world’s most biodiverse country, endowed with extensive water, solar, and wind resources. It has also re-emerged as a state that wants to take center stage in global environmental and development fora, such as the G20, BRICS and international climate negotiations. Together with a diversified industrial base and relatively high levels of state capacity, Brazil’s extraordinary natural resources give it the potential to become a giant of low-carbon industry whilst meeting its climate action commitments under the Paris Agreement. In this project, my colleague and friend, Dr Nicolas Lippolis, and I are investigating what some of the institutional obstacles and opportunities might be that could well determine whether green industrialization will really take off in Brazil- or remain stillborn.

Q: What motivated you to focus on the political economy of green industrialization in Brazil?

A: As a scholar of how different states and governments imagine what the environment can do for them to accelerate growth, create jobs and claim a more influential position in international supply chains, Brazil’s combination of diplomatic leadership and proactive industrial policy is of obvious interest to my work. On the one hand, there is my intrinsic interest in the objectives that Brazil is pursuing: can the country use its natural resources to finally realize its immense potential and escape the “middle income trap” by finding for itself opportunities in global shifts towards a low(er)-carbon economy? On the other hand, there are the significant global stakes of Brazil’s gambit: does Brazilian leadership and growing salience in key sectors make it easier or harder for other developing countries to follow such a strategy? Exploring possible answers to these and other questions is both of real-world and academic importance.

Q: What do you see as the most significant opportunity and the most daunting challenge for Brazil in achieving its green innovation goals?

A: The challenges are both domestic and international. Success is by no means guaranteed. 

Domestically, vested interests have historically constrained both innovation and environmental policy in Brazil and there is no reason to assume that these have gone away or are no more relevant- quite the contrary in a number of key areas. Moreover, the legacies of state-led industrialization in previous decades are profoundly mixed: some successes, such as Brazil’s ethanol programme that was developed in response to the post-1973 oil crisis date back half a century, are often cited as reasons for hope. But in other ways, statist guidance and interference has often led to the nefarious politicization of markets and economic activities, protecting well-connected elites and allowing to capture lucrative profits, at the expense of consumers and tax-payers. It does not help that Brazil’s political system constrains the room to maneuver of the government as the latter constantly needs to engage in political horse-trading with Congress and therefore needs to cater to ‘special interests’, who are rewarded with subsidy regimes, tax exemptions and other forms of favoritism that neither promote environmental sustainability nor economic dynamism nor social inclusion. 

Internationally, Brazilian leadership is indeed in much demand and many developing countries appreciate Brasilia’s efforts to listen to their concern and try to table their demands at international fora. However, Brazilian interests and, say, those of African states do not always converge- something that is perhaps especially obvious when it comes to questions of agriculture and climate policy. What makes sense for Brazil’s increasingly confident and well-resourced agro-industrial players does not necessarily align with what impoverished African countries prioritize in terms of rural development or climate action. The challenge is thus for the Brazilian government to identifying areas of convergence, show greater empathy for the difficulties facing its partners across the Global South and recognize the local factors that will determine whether Brazilian investment and aid will make a meaningful and positive contribution elsewhere in Latin America and in Africa.

Q: As part of your project, you hosted a huge event in Rio that gathered major stakeholders, including diplomats, business leaders, and government officials. Can you share a little bit about this experience and the process of bringing this to life?

A: As I explained earlier, a key objective of our project has been to stimulate policy dialogues in Brazil on the domestic and global politics of green innovation. For that reason we set ourselves the goal of organizing a large, policy-oriented event on biofuel diplomacy in the context of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in February 2024. We wanted to do this, in partnership with the Rio Global Center of Columbia University, to stimulate candid public debate on issues of great policy importance and to help motivate the next generation of Brazilian researchers, business leaders, and public servants to dedicate themselves to the challenges of green innovation. We leveraged the presence of diplomats, policymakers, and business leaders gathered in Rio for the G20 to organize high-quality exchanges on the topics that matter hugely with key decision-makers. This also helped us reach a broader public audience in Brazil and abroad by means of newspaper coverage of the event.

The event on biofuel diplomacy had a large attendance of over 100 people, including prominent ambassadors, academics, captains of industry and civil society representatives. 

Q: You had two Brazilians on your research team, Nicolas Lippolis, a postdoctoral researcher at the Columbia Climate School, and Luma Dias, who recently graduated from the School of International and Public Affairs. How was working with them and how did they contribute to the project?

A: The efforts of both Nicolas and Luma were absolutely indispensable to the success of the research project and the visit to Brazil. Nicolas and Luma are both Rio natives whose knowledge of the city and its key networks was essential for organizing our research activities and the public event. Moreover, both are also outstanding researchers whose survey of the growing academic and policy literature, in English and Portuguese, has been very important to my own growing understanding of the key issues and questions. Luma proved a superb, on-the-ground organizer and worked very effectively with Nicolas, who is an extremely talented scholar at the Columbia Climate School whose original analyses are increasingly widely read in Brazil, in the United States and beyond. I am incredibly thankful for their leadership and hard work, each in their own role.

Q: In what ways did the Rio Global Center and Climate Hub Rio contribute to the success of your project and the positive outcomes of your visit to Brazil?

A: The Rio Global Center and Climate Hub Rio were instrumental in supporting all stages of the project, particularly the implementation of the public event on biofuel diplomacy. The scaling up of the project’s ambitions was accompanied by a significant increase in organizational demands, which would not have been met without being able to draw on the Rio Global Center’s experience in organizing similar events. The Global Center also generously provided staff that helped host the event. Moreover, Global Center staff have consistently been helpful in drawing on their extensive networks to help identify relevant interlocutors in Brazil.

The Center certainly met and exceeded my expectations for the project. Our collaboration underlined that the Center is a major actor in the climate policy space in Brazil, and that partnerships with the Center can help us leverage research quality and impact. Moreover, we realized they are an efficient organization, as well as a pleasant partner to work with, due to the exceptional professional personal qualities of the staff. I am very grateful for this most rewarding partnership.

Q: How do you plan to disseminate the results of your research, and do you see any potential applications or implications of your findings?

A: The award by the Rio Global Center and the completion of the research project has allowed me and my research team to build a network of actors relevant to thinking about green innovation in Brazil and, indeed, globally. This network will provide a solid base for future research activities, partnerships, and grant applications. I hope to publish several academic papers based on the research undertaken so far. We remain in close contact with many of the senior government and corporate decision makers encountered in Brazil to continue the dialogue, learning from these key stakeholders and seeking to continue shaping the public conversation around green innovation in Brazil and beyond.