Three days before the 2024 Brazilian municipal elections, the Interdisciplinary Observatory on Climate Change and the Political and Electoral Observatory (OPEL) are publishing the report Climate Emergency and Public Policies: Mapping Citizens’ Perceptions at the Local Level, presenting the results of a survey that seeks to contribute to understanding how Brazilian women and men are dealing with climate change.

Coordinated by Josué Medeiros, de Mariana Castro and Prof. Carlos R. S. Milani, this project was designed collectively by the two observatories, based on 12 focus groups conducted in six cities: three in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Duque de Caxias and Niterói) and three in the state of São Paulo (São Paulo, Diadema and Osasco). The main aim of the research was to analyse the perceptions, preferences, demands and experiences of people living in these locations in relation to the phenomenon of climate change. Our general hypothesis, demonstrated in the document, is that there is social recognition of the existence and seriousness of climate change.

In the midst of the electoral season, getting to know the perceptions of voters can help us understand the place occupied by the issue of the climate emergency from the perspective of citizenship. This first partnership between OIMC and OPEL was supported by the Institute for Climate and Society (iCS) with a team of researchers made up of Rennan Pimentel, Júlia Nascimento Santos e Sérgio Mecena Neto.