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Short abstract:

This paper examines the climate science-policy interface in Brazil during the Bolsonaro government, which is known for having had strong anti-environmentalist and denialist positions. To do so, I have interviewed key Brazilian climate scientists and policymakers and analyzed governmental documents.

Long abstract:

This paper examines the climate science-policy interface in Brazil during the Bolsonaro government, which is widely known for its anti-environmentalist and denialist positions. To do so, I have interviewed key Brazilian climate scientists and policymakers and analyzed governmental documents. While in preceding administrations a scientific elite had regular interactions with climate policymakers and some scientists even took up policymaking positions, these interactions were significantly reduced during Bolsonaro´s administration. Furthermore, climate data produced by state research institutions were publicly criticized by the president and ministers. Yet this did not happen in a homogenous way across the government. For example, while the Ministry of the Environment virtually blocked all interactions between its members with the scientific community, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation kept interactions with climate scientists, even if at a smaller extent than in previous administrations, and deployed mainstream climate data in official documents addressed to the UNFCCC. In this sense, this paper seeks to advance the argument that this interface should be understood as a heterogeneous space so that within the same administration the interactions between scientists and policymakers, as well as the flow of data from scientific institutions to the government (and vice-versa), greatly vary across different governmental institutions.