On Friday, 29 August 2025, the Brazilian Centre for International Relations (CEBRI) will host an international panel discussion entitled Climate Obstruction: An Assessment, featuring members of the Interdisciplinary Observatory on Climate Change and the Climate Social Sciences Network (CSSN). Part of the Rio Climate Action Week (RCAW) programme, the event brings together the editors of the book Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment (Oxford University Press, 2025), academics, civil society representatives, and journalists to discuss strategies for addressing climate obstruction, such as regulations, climate litigation, and social mobilisation, at different scales, from the subnational level to international negotiations, including countries in the Global South and actions aimed at adaptation.

Starting at 10:30 a.m., the session will be held in person (in English, without simultaneous translation) at Casa COP, CEBRI’s new headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, with live online streaming on the Centre’s YouTube channel. The seminar will feature the publication’s editors, J. Timmons Roberts (Brown University) and Jennifer Jacquet (University of Miami), with comments by Gabriel Gama (Folha de S. Paulo) and Andrea Hoffmann (IRI/PUC-Rio) and a presentation by Prof. Carlos R. S. Milani, coordinator of OIMC and also an editor of the book.

Bringing together more than 100 climate obstruction experts from various countries, the book systematically addresses the complex, organised, and well-funded group of actors who have actively opposed political efforts to address climate change. As climate action becomes globalised, efforts to obstruct it have become more sophisticated, widespread, well-funded, and dangerous. Offering an unprecedented assessment of global climate obstruction, this volume deepens our understanding of efforts to delay or block climate change policies, pointing to potential actions to resist obstruction.