Brazil: New federal legislation establishes standards for creating strategies to adapt to climate change

Published as Federal Law No. 14.904/2024. In order to direct the implementation of steps to lessen the vulnerability and exposure to risks of environmental, social, economic, and infrastructure systems in the face of the current and anticipated negative effects of climate change, the law establishes guidelines for the preparation of plans for adapting to climate change.

Federal Law No. 14.904/2024 was released on June 27, 2024. Within the framework of the National Policy on Climate Change (PNMC), the legislation provides guidance for the creation of climate adaptation plans. 

Among the rules are:

• The identification, assessment, and prioritization of actions to address frequent natural disasters, lessen the exposure and vulnerability of rural and urban environmental, social, and economic systems, and infrastructure systems, as well as the negative impacts of climate change at local, municipal, state, regional, and federal levels.
• Climate risk reduction and management are necessary to plan and prioritize coordinated investment management according to the PNMC’s definition of vulnerability, as well as to estimate, limit, or prevent losses and damage.
• The creation of public policy tools in the areas of economics, finance, and socio environment to guarantee the practicality and efficiency of environmental, social, and economic systems of critical infrastructure adaptation.
• Integration of adaptation and mitigation plans at the local, state, federal, and regional levels in accordance with the Nationally Determined Contribution pledges made in the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
• The setting of priorities based on the areas and industries that are most at risk, as determined by the production of studies on climate risk and vulnerability assessments.
• The use of natural solutions in adaptation plans, taking into account their extra advantages and capacity to combine mitigation and adaptation outcomes at the same time.

The new law stipulates that the planned activities should be periodically monitored and evaluated, and inclusive governance procedures shall be adopted for the purpose of reviewing the plans mentioned in the legislation every four years, in accordance with the multi-annual plan cycle.

In addition, the regulation provides for the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, among others:

• To choose and rank the activities to be included, it will draw upon scientific data, model studies, and scenario projections, considering the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• In order to implement the steps it calls for, it will provide guidelines for state and local planning, guarantee priority assistance for the most vulnerable towns exposed to climate challenges, and encourage regional and intermunicipal cooperation.
• It will encourage global collaboration at the bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels for the purpose of funding, educating, developing, transferring, and disseminating technologies and procedures for the execution of adaptation measures, such as scientific research, systematic assessment of the effects of climate change monitoring, and information sharing.