Bioeconomy as a reference for the reactivation of the Climate Fund: discourse analysis from the STF hearing

Abstract

The Brazilian context is of dismantling environmental policies, among others, the operational and budgetary paralysis of the National Fund on Climate Change (Climate Fund) during the Jair Bolsonaro government in 2019 and 2020. Created in December 2009 and regulated in December 2018, the Climate Fund aims to ensure resources for projects and undertakings aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change in Brazil. As a result of the dismantling, the Argument of Noncompliance with Fundamental Precept (ADPF) 708 is in progress at the Supreme Court (STF). The rapporteur is Minister Roberto Barroso, who convened a public hearing to hear representatives of the following social groups as classified: Federal Government; Political; Economy; Rural; Science; Civil Society Entities; Law; Indigenous. The rapporteur's objective was to ascertain information regarding the functioning of the Climate Fund and, subsequently, to subsidize his decision on how the Brazilian Executive should conduct the application of these resources. The transcription document of the public hearing, held between 21 and 22 September 2020, was made available by the STF virtually and used in this article as the archive (Foucault, 2006) to identify and problematize the discourses. We discuss ongoing neoliberal governmentality with Porto-Gonçalves (2006) and Foucault (2008). We rely on Shiva (2000) and Federici (2014) to reflect on the effects of discourses around the bioeconomy and the relationship with the commons.