The (un)announced disaster in Porto Alegre

limits for the international cooperation at subnational climate policies

Abstract

A decade ago, local leaders agreed on a strategy to replace Porto Alegre’s status as the “capital of participatory democracy”,  and become a model for climate resilience. This municipal policy was built through intensive international cooperation and, in 2023, it was awarded the title of Resilience Hub for Latin America by the UN. At the subnational level, few municipalities in the country have access to a similar volume of international cooperation, which is why this capital was selected for a detailed analysis following IPEA’s framework for interpreting paradiplomacy based on the measurement of the planned Effect, in this case, the expansion of the Executive’s capacity to respond to extreme climate events. As a case study, we used the response to the storm of January 16, 2024, characterized at the time by the Mayor as “the most robust in recent history”. Among the results of a decade of Paradiplomacy, we did not see any reorientation of public policies on a scale necessary to mitigate that disaster, nor the operationalization of any type of Polycentric Governance. The goal of establishing Porto Alegre as a national or international benchmark for resilience was not achieved, as evidenced by the impact of the devastating floods that followed in May 2024. We identify Greenwashing in the official narrative. The reduction of the public sector, privatization of municipal bodies, which reduce the capacity to respond to disasters, are not occasional obstacles, but at the essence of municipal policy. This has been approved by the majority of voters over the course of six administrations and, even so, has not restricted international cooperation.