1

What types of climate change mitigation and adaptation policies are being considered or
implemented in Rio de Janeiro?

Author: Charles Laffiteau

Introduction

As the host city for both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, theory
suggests that, based on the experience of Beijing and China when it hosted the 2008 Summer
Olympics, the Brazilian national government, as well as the state and municipal governments of
Rio de Janeiro, will be expending considerable capital on the sports infrastructure required to
host these major sporting events. But just as the governments of China and Beijing also made
large expenditures on improving urban transportation and reducing harmful air pollutants, so too
will the governments of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro also have to make similar investments in order
to mitigate the potential adverse impacts of urban pollution on the health and well being of both
athletes and spectators. Furthermore Rio de Janeiro will also have to beef up its disaster
preparedness planning in order to avoid the potential negative fallout on tourism that would
result from a catastrophic weather event before or during these major international sporting
events. A flooding event similar to those which have recently affected Bangkok and Mumbai
would be disastrous not only for the citys slum dwellers, but also for the general publics and
the rest of the worlds international image of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. This leads to me to my
development case study research question which is What types of climate change mitigation
and adaptation policies and strategies are being considered or implemented in Rio de Janeiro?
The importance of this question is due to the fact that up until recently, the emphasis of
public policy in Brazil and most of the developing world has largely been on economic growth
and sustainability. But as necessary as these economic development efforts are, it is clear that
more attention needs to be given to adaptation to the climatic changes that are already underway
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and mitigation strategies to reduce the adverse impacts of future emissions of greenhouse gases.
Reducing GHG emissions from factories, electric utilities, cars and trucks is an important
element of climate change mitigation plans, while disaster preparedness and management plans
are vital components of an adaptation strategy. But to design these, policy makers need a better
understanding of which people and systems are vulnerable to climate hazards and what makes
them vulnerable, especially the poor slum dwellers living in cities like Rio de Janeiro.
Research Methods
To answer the research question I used the key words climate change, global warming,
policies, strategies, Third World, developing countries, cities, urban, financing, prevention,
weather disasters, mitigation, adaptation, prevention, planning, risk management, sea level rise
and combinations of these key words in searches for books, academic papers and journal articles
in the WorldCat database, articles in journals such as Environment and Urbanization and Cities.
I then used these same key words and combinations of them in my searches of other sources such
as NGOs and intergovernmental organizations like the World Bank, IPPC and UNFCC that deal
with the impact of climate change on cities and urban environments in developing countries.
Finally, I also included journal articles and books that deal with climate change related disaster
preparedness in my searches for information given the fact that coastal cities like Rio de Janeiro
are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Given the relative paucity of academic articles and studies dealing with climate change
adaptation and mitigation in Rio de Janeiro, another import source of information was using my
key words and combinations of them to search the internet for newspaper articles and blogs for
interviews with Rio de Janeiro political leaders and policymakers about Rios climate change
mitigation and adaptation policies as well as weather related disaster planning strategies.
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Rio de Janeiro Policy Makers Perspective
In his speech to the 2012 TED Conference, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said he
believed that policy makers in cities of the future like Rio de Janeiro needed to be guided by four
basic principles and then provided examples of how they are practiced in Rio de Janeiro. Paes
said that first; a city of the future has to be environmentally friendly. He explained that Every
time you think of a city, you have to think green, green, green. Every time you see concrete
jungle you must find open spaces. And when you find open spaces, make it so people can get to
them. He then went on to say that that making the city more environmentally friendly was the
principle underlying the creation of the third largest urban park in Rio, due to open by June 2012.
Paes second principle was that a city of the future has to deal with mobility and
integration of its people. He said that because cities are packed with people, high-capacity
transportation is critically important. However Paes also notes that these systems are very
expensive and then goes on to reference a project to redesign the urban plan of Curitiba Brazil so
that 63% of Rio de Janeiros population will be carried by its new BRT system by 2015.
Paes says that the third principle is that a city of the future has to be socially integrated.
Paes acknowledges the favelas that are prominent in Rio but he does not agree that they are
necessarily a problem. Paes maintains that if you deal with them properly, favelas can even be
their own solution. Over 1.4 million of Rios 6.3 million inhabitants live in favelas but Paes
claims that you can change the favelas vicious circle of poverty to a virtuous one if you bring
education, health and open spaces to the favelas. His aim is to urbanize the favelas by 2020.
Paes fourth principle is that a city of the future has to use technology to be present. As
an example of what he means, Paes notes that since February is high season in Rio de Janeiro
he shouldnt be away from the city attending the TED Conference. But, Paes says that thanks to
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technology can leave the country because technology in the citys Operation Center allows him
to check up on the state of the city, on the weather, the traffic and even on the location of the
citys waste collection trucks while he is out of the country. Paes concludes that At the end of
the day, the city of the future is a city that cares about its citizens and integrates its citizens.
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Climate Change Mitigation in Rio de Janeiro
The IPCCs 2007 (Fourth) Assessment concluded that creating synergies between
adaptation and mitigation can increase the cost-effectiveness of actions and make them more
attractive to stakeholders, including potential funding agencies.
2
But as Bartlett et al note; most
of this synergy between mitigation and adaptation policies is in wealthier nations; in most urban
areas in low-income nations, there is not much to mitigate because greenhouse gas emissions are
so low.
3
Therefore it isnt too surprising that there doesnt yet appear to be much synergy
between Rio de Janeiros climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. However, in
contrast to large cities in many other developing countries that are primarily focused on adapting
to climate change and planning for extreme weather events, Rio de Janeiro has also begun to
implement some strategies and policies that are designed to mitigate climate change by reducing
the citys overall GHG emissions.
Because Brazil generates more than 75% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, there
are few opportunities for cities like Rio de Janeiro to reduce their GHG emissions other than
through activities related to their transport systems and waste management. Dubeux and La
Rovere have conducted studies which show that 60% of Rio de Janeiros GHG emissions are

1
Eduardo Paes. Mayors Voices: Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes: Interview at Ted 2012 Conference C40 Cities Live
Blog (March 2, 2012)
2
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climate Change: Impacts, Vulnerabilities and Adaptation in
Developing Countries. (Bonn Germany: Information Services of the UNFCCC Secretariat, 2007)
3
Sheridan Bartlett, David Dodman, Jorgelina Hardoy, David Satterthwaite and Cecilia Tacoli, Social Aspects of Climate
Change in Urban Areas in Low and Middle Income Nations International Institute for Environment and Development and
Instituto Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo. Paper presented at Fifth Urban Research Symposium 2009: Cities and
Climate Change: Responding to an Urgent Agenda. (June 28-30, 2009) Marseille, France:22
5

generated by energy consumption for transportation and that the second largest source of GHG
emissions is the waste management sector which accounts for another 37%. Probably the most
visible climate change mitigation policy initiative in Brazil is the use of flex fuel vehicles that
run on either a 75/25% mixture of gasoline and ethanol or 100% pure ethanol made from
sugarcane. Flex fuel vehicles have been a commercial success and Brazils 16.3 million flex fuel
vehicles comprise the largest fleet of flex fuel vehicles in the world. Studies conducted by
UNICA, Brazils ethanol industry trade association show that thanks to these vehicles us of
cleaner burning ethanol and ethanol gasoline blends Brazil emitted 83.5 million fewer tons of
carbon than it would have emitted had those vehicles been using gasoline instead of ethanol.
As regards reducing GHG emissions through waste management, Dubeux and La Rovere
note that Brazil currently has two successful experiences in Clean Development Management
(CDM) projects based on local initiatives that involve landfill gas burning, one of which is in
Nova Iguacu, in Rio de Janeiro state.
4
The authors conclude that just as the widespread use of
ethanol provides other benefits beyond the climate change impacts of reduced GHG emissions
such as enhanced energy security, landfill gas burning in conjunction with the CDM also
provides other benefits as well. The authors claim that; additional income from GHG emissions
reduction projects can help control local pollution and achieve other types of benefits such as
lower public expenditure, traffic improvement and reductions in atmospheric pollution, among
other aspects that are important to the quality and everyday life of communities.
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But Rio de Janeiro has also taken other steps beyond gas burning to reduce its GHG
emissions. Rio de Janeiro is also the home of the worlds largest garbage dump, Jardim-
Gramacho, and this garbage dump is the source of many waste products used in recycling. As a

4
Carolina Burle Schmidt Dubeux and Emilio Le`bre La Rovere. Local perspectives in the control of greenhouse gas emissions
The case of Rio de Janeiro. Cities (Vol. 24, No. 5, 2007): 354
5
Dubeux and La Rovere: 363
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nation, Brazil has also long been a leader in the recycling of aluminum, steel, glass and plastics.
Brazil leads world by recycling 96.5% of its aluminum cans and ranks second to Japan in
recycling plastic bottles. Brazil also ranks third in recycling steel cans, fourth in recycling plastic
solids and fifth in recycling glass bottles. Recycling is a very practical climate change mitigation
strategy that helps reduce GHG emissions because less fossil fuel energy is used to produce new
glass, aluminum and steel containers and less oil is used to produce new plastic bottles and
solids. However, in contrast to the recycling programs used by more developed countries like
Japan and the United States (US), instead of household collection, most is of Brazils recycling is
accomplished by poor favela residents picking through rubbish piles and garbage dumps like the
one at Jardim-Gramacho.
With the assistance of funding from the World Bank, Rio de Janeiro and its main electric
utility, Light Servios de Electricidade, have attempted to incorporate recycling into its attempts
to provide safe electrical service to the favelas under the Program for Normalization of Informal
Areas. According to the World Bank, in Rios favelas, the struggle to find work and have access
to basic social services is exacerbated by the threat of fire, electrocution and power outages.
These additional risks stem from the often desperate steps residents take to bring electricity to
their meager homes, which are often connected illegally and with extreme risk to the power
network. Part of the solution is to find ways to deal with infrastructural inadequacies, to provide
essential services at a low cost, and to educate favela residents about proper power use.
Under the Program for Normalization of Informal Areas, Light is working in the city's
low-income communities to establish and upgrade power networks, install transformers and
meters, and educate local residents about safe, cost-effective power usage. Light is working
hand-in-hand with local NGOs on a program to establish and upgrade power networks, install
7

transformers & meters, to provide favela residents safe, cost-effective power. It also documents
proof of residence for favelos, necessary for getting a phone and establishing credit. But Light
goes a step further by encouraging recycling within the companys concession area with a
program that gives favela residents money off their electricity bills in exchange for paper, plastic,
aluminum, steel and glass bottles that can be used to cut GHG emissions through recycling.
6

Rio de Janeiro and other cities in developing countries suffer from the effects of urban
sprawl thanks to an explosion of new residents spawned by increased rural to urban migration.
Torres and Pinho write that Sprawl is commonly viewed as an unsustainable option although
there is no consensus among academics and planners about the notion of a right density.
Diffuse developments increase distances between trip origins and destinations and, as a
consequence, traveled distances. Such developments not only increase air pollution and energy
consumption but also increase infrastructural and public service costs. They have negative
impacts on historical city centres and as well as other physical and social costs.
7

One project designed to both address Rio de Janeiros urban sprawl transport problems
and mitigate climate change by reducing Rio de Janeiros GHG emissions is the World Banks
Additional Financing for the Upgrading and Greening of the Rio de Janeiro Urban Rail System
Project. This project is envisioned to improve the level of service provided to suburban rail
transport users in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (RJMR) in a safe and cost-efficient
manner; and to improve the transport management and policy framework in the RJMR.
According to the World Bank, this additional financing loan will be used to scale up a well-
performing project in order to strengthen its policy component and further enhance the level of
service provided by the urban rail system to make it more attractive to bus and automobile users

6
World Bank. Bringing Light to Slums of Brazil. Program for Normalization of Informal Areas (September 17 2002)
7
Miguel Torres and Paulo Pinho. Encouraging low carbon policies through a Local Emissions Trading Scheme (LETS). Cities
(Vol. 28 No. 3, 2011): 577
8

and to promote climate change mitigation and adaptation in the long term. The US$600 million
loan from the World Bank will create a better quality of life in Rio and a reduction of 93,700
tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to over 25,000 gasoline passenger cars. But it will
also finance the development of a sustainable transport strategy for the state of Rio de Janeiro,
including reducing the overall carbon footprint of the system, and the establishment of a climate
change natural disaster monitoring centre.
8

Rio de Janeiros Mayor, Eduardo Paes, also cites Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as another
example of addressing the problem of urban sprawl and mitigating climate change by dealing
with the mobility and integration of Rio de Janeiro residents in an environmentally friendly way.
Paes says that BRTs four exclusive lanes for articulated buses that can carry up to 160
passengers are currently being built by the Rio de Janeiro City Hall and users will be able to
board its buses on acclimatized stations, where they will buy their tickets and connect with the
train and underground systems. Paes claims that after construction is completed, BRT will allow
Rio de Janeiro to increase the percentage of citizens who use high capacity public transport from
the current 18% to 63% in 2015.
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Climate Change Adaptation in Rio de Janeiro
Hardoy and Pandiella acknowledge that several factors explain why extreme weather
events related to climate change fail to motivate the general public to demand that political
leaders take the actions that are needed to adapt to climate change and or mitigate some of its
most damaging effects. The negative consequences associated with floods, droughts and extreme
temperatures attract a lot of media attention and commentary by local authorities in the days and
weeks following their occurrence. However, much like other natural disasters that are not

8
World Bank. Upgrading and Greening the Rio de Janeiro Urban Rail System Additional Financing. (February 22 2012)
9
Paes interview: (March 2, 2012)
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weather related like earthquakes and tsunamis, many of the people displaced by these disasters
are quickly forgotten when the media turns its attention elsewhere later. But these authors claim
that for the urban poor living in cities like Rio de Janeiro the lack of appropriate actions has to do
with the long-evident incapacity of governments to address risk and to integrate development
with the reduction of vulnerability.
10

In some cases governments lack the necessary data they need to develop credible disaster
plans while in other cases local officials lack the resources and or capacities needed to develop
and support disaster preparedness plans. But even if those case where they do have the necessary
resources the authors say that In practice, governments still tend to concentrate on emergency
response and recovery and have been slow to adopt an integrated disaster prevention and
preparedness approach, which needs an understanding of vulnerability and risk accumulation
processes and a capacity and willingness to work with those who are vulnerable.
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But are cities like Rio de Janeiro also part of the problem or are they more likely part of
the solution to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies? David Dodman points out
that detailed analyses of urban greenhouse gas emissions for individual cities suggest that per
capita urban residents tend to generate a substantially smaller volume of greenhouse gas
emissions than residents elsewhere in the same country.
12
On the basis of this information it
would appear that the acceleration in rural to urban migration that Rio de Janeiro and large cities
in other developing countries have been experiencing over the past fifty years could help
mitigate climate change by reducing per capita GHG emissions. Instead of complaining about the
pressure this places on urban infrastructure maybe we should focus on adapting to it.

10
Jorgelina Hardoy and Gustavo Pandiella. Urban poverty and vulnerability to climate change in Latin America. Environment
and Urbanization (Vol. 21 No. 1, 2009): 203
11
Hardoy and Pandiella: 220
12
David Dodman. Blaming cities for climate change? An analysis of urban greenhouse gas emissions inventories Environment
and Urbanization (Vol. 21 No. 1, 2009): 186
10

On the other hand, the accelerated migration of Brazils rural poor into large urban
metropolises like Rio de Janeiro cannot help but have a negative impact on a local environment
that isnt designed to accommodate such large densities of human inhabitants. Hamza and Zetter
note that Urban growth on such a large scale cannot avoid having a major environmental
impact. Environmental degradation increases disaster vulnerability, and every disaster has an
additional negative environmental impact.
13
While urban officials could try to slow the influx of
poor rural residents into cities like Rio de Janeiro and reduce pressure on the local environment,
it simply isnt realistic to expect that they can do anything to change these migration patterns.
Hamza and Zetter also note this writing that, Spontaneous growth has been the norm in many
developing countries, and spatial policies have a very poor record in achieving their purposes.
14

Charles Mueller observes that in the case of Rio de Janeiro The areas settled by the
urban poor are often environmentally fragile, and a concentration of population there contributes
to their degradation. Moreover, they are usually dangerous and, occasionally, the threats they
pose materialize through surges of flooding and landslides.
15
While many middle class and
wealthy residents of Rio de Janeiro also locate their homes on the same hillsides and low lying
areas that are susceptible to flooding, unlike the favela residents they can afford to reinforce their
homes and insure them as well as lobby local officials to enact policies to protect their
neighborhoods. On the other hand the most vulnerable groups, the poor, the elderly, women and
children have little or no voice in the disaster preparedness plans for the areas they live in.
Rio de Janeiros unique geography also makes it more prone to weather related disasters.
The Atlantic rainforest that once covered the hills surrounding the city has been stripped away

13
Mohamed Hamza and Roger Zetter. Structural adjustment, urban systems, and disaster vulnerability in developing countries.
Cities (Vol. 15 No. 4, 1998): 296
14
Hamza and Zetter: 293
15
Charles C. Mueller. Environmental problems inherent to a development style: degradation and poverty in Brazil.
Environment and Urbanization (Vol. 7: No. , 1995)2: 67-84
11

and its low lying over the years to create space for housing and this has caused increased erosion
of the thin soils that cover the underlying granite leading to land and mudslides. Many of the low
lying coastal marshes and lagoons have also been filled in thus reducing Rios capacity to absorb
excessive amounts of rainfall. Sherbinin et al also note that Rio has never been impacted by
tropical cyclones, although this may change. The first recorded South Atlantic hurricane reached
land in the state of Santa Catarina in March 2004, suggesting that what was once thought to be a
meteorological impossibility is no longer so, with global warming-induced increases in regional
sea surface temperatures.
16
Since there is little policy makers can do to slow the growth of cities
like Rio de Janeiro they should instead focus on managing that growth in a sustainable manner
while also addressing the needs of the most vulnerable segments of society. Rios urban sprawl
and unique geographic considerations also underscore the need for policy makers to devise
policies that account for the impact of new housing and business enterprises on the local ecology.
With respect to climate change adaptation, Obermaier et al note that Adaptation has now
become a priority on the Brazilian government agenda, as evidenced by the National Climate
Change Policy Plan (Governo Federal, 2008) recently put forward by the President to the
Congress.
17
However, the fact that climate change adaptation has become a priority for Brazils
political leaders isnt too surprising since one of the predictions of climate change is that
problems such as sea level rise and flooding are expected to become even worse in the coming
decades due to the effects of climate change and an increase in extreme weather events. Indeed
Rio de Janeiro recently experienced extreme rainfall events and extensive flooding in April 2010
that caused 292 fatalities and more disastrous rains again less than a year later in January 2011

16
Alex De Sherbinin, Andrew Schiller and Alex Pulsipher. The vulnerability of global cities to climate hazards. Environment
and Urbanization (Vol.19 No. 1, 2007):53
17
Martin Obermaier, Maria Regina Maroun, Debora Cynamon Kligerman, Emilio Lbre La Rovere, Daniele Cesano, Thais
Corral, Ulrike Wachsmann, Michaela Schaller and Benno Hain. Adaptation To Climate Change In Brazil: The Pintadas Pilot
Project And Multiplication Of Best Practice Examples Through Dissemination And Communication Networks. paper presented
at RIO 9 - World Climate & Energy Event, (17-19 March 2009), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:189
12

that led to 903 fatalities. But with a large international news media contingent and a global TV
audience, another flooding event similar to these during the 2014 World Cup or 2016 Summer
Olympics would be disastrous not only for Rios slum dwellers, but also for tourism and the
general publics as well as the worlds international image of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil.
In their recent assessment of Rios climate change adaptation policies and disaster
planning strategies, Young and Nobre write that Extreme events such as intense rainfalls have
shown to be a growing problem in many areas in the world, including the city of Rio de Janeiro.
But Rios risk situations are also a consequence of a social process related to structural urban
issues that are linked to political decisions.
18
Sherbinin, Schiller and Pulsipher then cite an
example of precisely how structural urban issues linked to political decisions have exacerbated
the negative consequences associated with extreme weather. Building pedestrian sidewalks in
Rios favelas is a public policy measure that has long been used by Rios political leaders to
garner political support by helping favela residents safely navigate their neighborhoods narrow
urban thoroughfares and integrating these communities into Rios transportation network.
Unfortunately paved concrete sidewalks also contribute to GHG emissions both during
the concrete production process and after they have been built by reflecting rather than absorbing
solar radiation. Furthermore, Sherbinin et al write that: Although favelas have always suffered
during rainy seasons, the paving of walkways has had the effect of increasing runoff to the point
where water is often ankle or knee deep between houses. Runoff from communities on steep
hillsides is channeled down cemented watercourses to the coastal lowlands where they join
canals whose limited flow capacity causes frequent flooding.
19


18
A. Young and C. Nobre. Climate Change Vulnerability in Rio de Janeiro: an integrated case study of sea level rise and
flooding. Paper presented at Planet Under Pressure 2012 (March 26-29, 2012) London, UK
19
Sherbinin et al : 51
13

Rio de Janeiros city planners are now aware of these unintended negative consequences
of building new sidewalks in the favelas, but favela residents continue to favor the construction
of even more sidewalks. As a result, politicians continue to push for more sidewalks while city
planners struggle to devise alternative pedestrian strategies. But Rios city planners are in a
difficult position because as Jordi Oliver-Sol et al point out; there is a lack of environmental
tools to guide urban planners through design/redesign processes and quantitative research on the
global environmental impacts of urban infrastructures is still in its early stages.
20

A key element in Rio de Janeiros plans for adapting to climate change and the extreme
weather events associated with it is the use of technology. As an example of how Rio de Janeiro
is using technology to help adapt to future climate change related weather events, Paes cites the
capabilities of Rios Operations Center. Paes describes the Operations Centre as a nerve centre
where we monitor all logistics of the city, from waste management and traffic control to weather
and climate-related incidents. Using IBM technology, a 250-km-radius radar and 560 cameras,
the Operations Centre allows us to be present when and where we are needed.
21

In addition to better development planning to account for local ecological considerations,
adapting to climate change will also require an increase in the resources Rio de Janeiro will need
to respond to future climate change related weather events. As Christoplos, Mitchell & Liljelund
observe; A central objective of disaster preparedness is to increase the efficiency, effectiveness
and impact of disaster response. But despite massive investment in relief skills training by many
agencies, the impact has been mixed, and it is clear that the same mistakes have been made again
and again due to the difficulties in sustaining capacity between disasters.
22


20
Jordi Oliver-Sol, Alejandro Josa, Alejandro Arena, Xavier Gabarrell and Joan Rieradevall The GWP-Chart: An
environmental tool for guiding urban planning processes. Application to concrete sidewalks. Cities (Vol. 28 No. 1, 2011): 247
21
Paes interview: (March 2, 2012)
22
Ian Christoplos, John Mitchell and Anna Liljelund. Re-framing Risk: The Changing Context of Disaster Mitigation and
Preparedness. Disasters (Vol. 25 No. 3, 2001):195
14

Conclusions
Although I only found a few articles that address measures that have been taken to deal
with the negative impacts of climate change and related weather events on Rio de Janeiros
residents and its governments disaster planning strategies, it would appear that Rio de Janeiros
public officials are at least beginning to take some of the steps that are necessary to both mitigate
climate change and adapt to its negative impacts. However this observation is based primarily on
a February 29, 2012 interview conducted with Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduard Paes at the 2012
TED Conference in Long Beach CA and the programs he mentioned in this interview, rather than
the scholarly assessments of Rio de Janeiros climate change mitigation and adaption strategies
that were mentioned in the articles and scholarly literature that was reviewed for this paper.
As previously noted in the policymakers perspective section, in his speech to the 2012
TED Conference, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said that four most important attributes of
future cities would be; 1) to be environmentally friendly, 2) to deal with mobility and integration
of its people, 3) to be socially integrated, and 4) to use technology effectively. Based on this
review of Rio de Janeiros climate change mitigation and adaptation policies it would also appear
that Rios policymakers are indeed using these principles to guide them in the development of
Rios climate change policies. But political will is also an essential element in devising climate
change mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies that dont unnecessarily intrude on
economic development progress in cities like Rio de Janeiro. Christoplos, Mitchell & Liljelund
note the necessity of political will is due to the fact that for political leaders; The political costs
of redirecting priorities from visible development projects to addressing abstract long-term
threats are great. It is hard to gain votes by pointing out that a disaster did not happen.
23


23
Christoplos et al:195

15

Bibliography

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Social Aspects of Climate Change in Urban Areas in Low and Middle Income Nations
International Institute for Environment and Development and Instituto Internacional de
Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo. Paper presented at Fifth Urban Research Symposium
2009: Cities and Climate Change: Responding to an Urgent Agenda. (June 28-30, 2009)
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Christoplos, Ian, John Mitchell and Anna Liljelund. Re-framing Risk: The Changing Context of
Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness. Disasters (Vol. 25 No. 3, 2001):185-198
Dubeux, Carolina Burle Schmidt and Emilio Le`bre La Rovere. Local perspectives in the
control of greenhouse gas emissions The case of Rio de Janeiro. Cities (Vol. 24, No. 5,
2007): 353364
Dodman, David. Blaming cities for climate change? An analysis of urban greenhouse gas
emissions inventories Environment and Urbanization (Vol. 21 No. 1, 2009): 185-201
Hamza, Mohamed and Roger Zetter. Structural adjustment, urban systems, and disaster
vulnerability in developing countries. Cities (Vol. 15 No. 4, 1998): 291-299
Hardoy, Jorgelina and Gustavo Pandiella. Urban poverty and vulnerability to climate change in
Latin America. Environment and Urbanization (Vol. 21 No. 1, 2009): 203-224
Mueller, Charles C. Environmental problems inherent to a development style: degradation and
poverty in Brazil. Environment and Urbanization (Vol. 7: No. , 1995)2: 67-84
Obermaier, Martin, Maria Regina Maroun, Debora Cynamon Kligerman, Emilio Lbre La
Rovere, Daniele Cesano, Thais Corral, Ulrike Wachsmann, Michaela Schaller and
Benno Hain. Adaptation To Climate Change In Brazil: The Pintadas Pilot Project And
16

Multiplication Of Best Practice Examples Through Dissemination And Communication
Networks. paper presented at RIO 9 - World Climate & Energy Event, (17-19 March
2009), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:185-190
Oliver-Sol, Jordi, Alejandro Josa, Alejandro Arena, Xavier Gabarrell and Joan Rieradevall The
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concrete sidewalks. Cities (Vol. 28 No. 1, 2011): 245-250
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Trading Scheme (LETS). Cities (Vol. 28 No. 3, 2011): 576-682
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