Non-State Actors and Sustainable Development in Brazil

This book investigates how non-state actors have become key drivers of the diffusion of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Brazil.

The UN ranks Brazil as the most biodiverse country in the world, but the country’s environment has never been under greater threat, with the rise of multiple crises bringing mounting challenges to socioeconomic development and environmental protection. As state support has fallen away, non-state actors have actively engaged and eventually mobilized other social actors towards the promotion of the SDGs and the implementation of the UN agenda. This book asks why it is that non-state actors have dedicated so much time, effort and resources to promote a non-binding agenda that was ratified by and is mainly assigned to state actors. Looking at the roles of academia, civil society, and the private sector, the book explores the different ways in which these social actors make sense of and translate the 2030 Agenda into practice within their respective local contexts. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, this book sheds light on a series of challenges, opportunities and contradictions within the global agenda and its implementation.

Assessing what the Brazil case can teach us about the diffusion of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs more broadly, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Sustainable Development, Latin America Studies and Environmental Politics as well as sustainable development researchers and policy makers.

"This books presents provocative and stimulating insights about the challenges to implement the SDGs, to overcome political setbacks, and strengthen commitments towards sustainable development. The Brazilian case is particularly interesting given its central role in supporting or undermining worldwide efforts to raise awareness of and take action on the global socio-ecological crisis."

Pedro Roberto Jacobi, Professor, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Eduardo Gonçalves Gresse is a research associate at the Cluster of Excellence "Climate, Climatic Change, and Society" (CLICCS), Universität Hamburg, Germany.

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