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This paper analyses the potential implications of the proposed European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the recently adopted United Kingdom (UK) legislation on deforestation-free supply chains (henceforth 'the legislation') for different stakeholders in Brazil. These regulations intend to address global commodity-driven deforestation and forest degradation by ensuring that targeted commodities and products placed on (or exported from) markets are of minimal risk of being associated with - in the EU - deforestation and forest degradation or - in the UK - illegal deforestation. The paper examines potential compliance readiness in cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, soybean and tropical timber supply chains in Brazil, indicating specific challenges that may arise. Through the construction of a "Compliance Likelihood Index", our research provides comparable indications to policymakers on sectors and stakeholders that may need stronger support to meet the requirements, in order to maintain Brazil's access to EU and UK markets. The paper indicates that coffee is the sector with the highest level of incentivization and smallest hurdles for compliance, while the cattle sector may face stronger challenges to rapidly adjust its production system towards a deforestation-free value chain and prove compliance. Results of our analysis also highlight the need for collaboration between the EU/UK and Brazil in order to promote alignment between domestic and demand-side legislations so that they are mutually reinforcing. Results of this exercise, which has a focus on the producer-country view of demand-side legislation, will contribute to discussions on the merits of different approaches to strengthen the governance of deforestation-risk commodity trade. [Display omitted] • Brazil's coffee sector may currently have the greatest likelihood of ready compliance. • Cattle may be the sector to which the regulations may pose the greatest challenges. • The EU and UK should focus on providing financial means and technical assistance for smallholders. • The EU and UK legislation will need to be accompanied by domestic policies and regulations in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the disappointing outreach of Brazilian urban reform by analyzing the underlying tensions and contradictions of its key principle, that is, the social, function of property (SFP), from a perspective of contemporary theoretical debates on the double nature of rent (i.e., related to monopoly positions and emerging from market, circulation). The SFP principle is grounded in anti-rentier, agrarian reform thinking, which stressed that individual monopoly landowners should not be allowed to retain their property for speculative purposes and use it productively to increase food supplies. In contemporary dense cities, however, using property "productively" implies redevelopment, that is, transformation of existing structures of the built environment, into alternative ones. This has two implications, one related to the essence of the SFP, (its being), the other regarding what it means having a SFP in an urban setting. In relation to the former, despite its anti-rentier stance, in cities the SFP triggers a redevelopment-rent nexus due to the circulation of rents in non-competitive markets. Regarding the latter implication, having a SFP in cities requires complex, open-ended and utilitarian negotiations between state and non-state actors aimed at the appropriation of rents to articulate the conflicting interests of individual property owners with the collective good. The theoretical argument of the paper is illustrated with a short, heuristic case on redevelopment in the city of São Paulo, while its conclusion provides elements for a research agenda on the limits of market-based, reformist versus right- based planning beyond this specific context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is a case of the achievement of a high share of wind energy integration to an interconnected power system in an emerging market. A series of successful energy supply programmes and a strong renewable-oriented finance framework implemented since 2002, have promoted alternative renewables – wind installed capacity increased over 22-fold from 927 MW in 2011 to 21 GW in 2022, reaching 11.77% of total procured power. From this, about 90% are concentrated in Brazil's least developed region, the Northeast, where wind investment should create jobs and propel socioeconomic development. Despite that, there is no studies specific assessing the regional and economy-wide effects of those programmes, gap that this paper aims to fill by applying the regional Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model TERM-BR10. We assess that by modelling an alternative scenario for the period 2010-19 based on an official electricity matrix built in 2010, that projected 3.4 additional GW of wind power while not considering all the success of renewable policies, against the observed installed capacity expansion, where wind power was 3.7 times higher than what had been planned. Our results show that in the absence of renewable policies, Brazil would have faced economic losses such as GDP (−0.27%) and investment (−4.76%). The Northeast region would have been the most impacted in terms of GDP (−1.3%), real wage (−2.99%) and employment creation (−0.1%). We propose that such socioeconomic co-benefits are incorporated in energy planning, which could promote regional equality through renewable energy expansion. • Wind power capacity increased over 20-fold from 2011 to 2022. • 90% are in the poorest region where policies propel development and job creation. • Policy absence would entail a GDP loss of 0.27% nationally and of 1.3% in the region. • Negative impacts to labour market are mostly over skilled jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Bolsonaro administration and its class allies used the pandemic as a political opportunity and the state as a tool to advance dispossessions. • Dispossessions such as debt interest payments or privatizations simply redistribute surpluses or means of production, with no impact on capital expansion. • Dispossessions of peasants or indigenous people from lands and forests expand capital by turning their means of subsistence into means of capitalist production. • The transfer to for-profit companies of public services, facilities, or spaces turns means of subsistence into commodities and thus expands capital. • Capitalization, commodification, or the termination of contemporary commons reduce means of subsistence and thus increase the availability of exploitable labor-power. In 2020–2021 Brazil simultaneously experienced the far-right presidency of Jair Bolsonaro and the world's largest health crisis in a century. The Covid-19 pandemic struck the country deeply, killing about 690 thousand people by late 2022. They were also years of increased pressure by capital on peasants and indigenous people, targets of the violence with which capital, ever since its dawn, has wielded to advance over spaces that serve the subsistence of immediate producers. In this period, the Brazilian state continued to comply with decades-old demands from neoliberal ideology for privatizations and the dismantling of protections for workers and the poor in general. These phenomena, when articulated by theory inspired by the Marxian concept of primitive accumulation, suggest that the Bolsonaro administration and its class allies used the pandemic as a political opportunity for dispossessing policies. The article discusses this based on concepts that distinguish dispossessions that serve capital expansion from those that do not. The first group includes processes that lead to proletarianization of immediate producers in addition to the capitalization or commodification of hitherto means of subsistence. Among dispossessions that do not expand capital are those that involve the simple redistribution of surpluses or means of production. The paper contributes to the literature on dispossession by analyzing concrete manifestations of it, drawing on a conceptual framework that distinguishes dispossession types that have been conflated in much current research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a comment on the paper "Spatio-temporal analysis of shoreline changes and future forecast using remote sensing, GIS and Kalman filter model: A case study of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil". Results obtained by Palanisamy et al. (2023) differ from other works on the coastline of Rio de Janeiro. Images from the Landsat 1–3 Multispectral Scanner (MSS) satellite and Landsat 5–9 images were inappropriately used in the detailing to delimit the shoreline variations. The lack of information about tides and waves at the time of image acquisition compromised the research results. Oceanographic - meteorological data relating to the month, day and time of the satellite's passage are fundamental in studies of this nature. These forcings are capable of temporarily modifying the morphology and position of coastline. The article proposed by Palanisamy et al. (2023) underestimated the rates of accretion and coastal erosion along the coastline of Rio de Janeiro city by neglecting the issues addressed here. • Results obtained by Palanisamy et al. (2023)on the shoreline variations in Rio de Janeiro city are questioned here. • Methodological procedures used to delimit the historical shoreline variations of Rio de Janeiro city presented inconsistencies. • Results obtained by Palanisamy et al. (2023) on the shoreline of Rio de Janeiro city are incompatibles with other work carried out in the study area. • Comments presented here aim to contribute to the evolution of knowledge about the coastal erosion process (geological hazard) on the shoreline of Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments play a strategic role in adapting to climatic changes. However, understanding the factors that explain why local governments make commitments to act remains challenging for scholars and practitioners. Thus, this paper considers the analysis of two important factors that might influence local governments to plan for climate adaptation: Risk Management Capacity (RMC) and Transnational Municipal Networks (TMN). We examined whether RMC and participation in a TMN (ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability) are determinant factors for the existence of local climate change plans in Brazilian municipalities. Statistical analysis shows that municipalities with larger populations and higher education index are more likely to develop plans addressing adaptation to climate change. We found that not only is the presence of TMNs important, but the period a municipality has a partnership with the TMN influences planning for adaptation. Surprisingly, a stronger RMC and the number of disasters in a municipality do not imply a higher likelihood of developing municipal climate change plans. In a textual analysis, we also argue that the plans to combat climate change are still insufficiently developed as they do not always discuss adaptation. • City's participation in a TMN increases the propensity to develop climate plans. • Risk Management Capacity does not impact city's development of climate change plans. • Brazilian cities do not always discuss adaptation in climate change plans. • A sustainability office enhances the propensity to develop climate plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean economy is becoming more than ever a key to job creation, value addition, and sustainable development of countries and regions. Given the growth of the world population and the pressure on onshore resources, the demand for marine resource exploration and maritime activities is growing, leading to different policies around the world. In the case of Brazil, a country with an extensive coastline, there are still few public policies and official definitions/data capable of fostering the ocean economy. Hence, this paper aims to map the sectors of the ocean economy of the state of Rio de Janeiro (SRJ), highlighting its potential for recovery of the local economic dynamics. To this end, the methodology considers the economic sectors that present a direct influence from the sea, encompassing 89 economic activities that were divided into 6 sectors. The treatment, cleaning, graphics, and maps created from R 4.2.2 used the following packages: tidyverse, basedosdados, paletteer, ggthemes, systemfonts, ggtext, sf, geobr. 2021 is the base year for the data, which used two main official Brazilian bases: Annual Social Information Report (RAIS) and tax data from the Internal Revenue Service, compiled by Datalake Neoway. Among the main results, we highlight the relevance of the service sector, particularly those related to the oil and gas industry (P&G) and tourism. • The ocean economy should be taken as a vector of sustainable development in Brazil. • Promoting the ocean economy requires a reformulation of public policies. • There are many industries and stakeholders involved in SRJ's ocean economy. • Like other countries, the service sector stands out in SRJ's ocean economy. • Despite its informality, tourism generates more jobs in SRJ's ocean economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The family Polymixiidae is an ancient group of acanthomorph fish, often regarded as living fossils. Currently, there are 11 valid species allocated in the genus Polymixia , and commonly known as beardfish. All species are benthopelagic and can be found at depths between 80 and 800 meters, in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. Traditionally, only two species had been assigned to the Atlantic Ocean, P. lowei , in the western Atlantic, and P. nobilis , in the North Atlantic, including northern South America and Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago; however, recent studies revealed a cryptic species from the Bermudas, described as P. hollisterae , and a yet undescribed species from the Caribbean Sea. Herein, we describe a new species of Polymixia from the western South Atlantic, which was previously confused with P. lowei. The new species is supported by both morphological and molecular evidence and can be distinguished among its congeners by a combination of characters, including counts of gill rakers, pyloric caeca, and dorsal-fin rays, arrangement of scales spines, and the shape of preopercle. The new species is distributed on the upper continental slope in Brazil, from Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul, and Uruguay, between 160 and 600 meters deep. • A new species of the living fossil genus Polymixia is described. • Integrative taxonomy reveals a new beardfish from the western South Atlantic. • The Atlantic Ocean harbors a cryptic diversity of the deep-sea genus Polymixia. • Molecular phylogeny reveals allopatric speciation between North and South Atlantic. • Industrial activities and marine litter are threatening Brazilian deep-sea fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]