Brazil: A Boundary Case of Environmental Power

This chapter uses a case study of Brazil to conceptualize what it means to be a boundary environmental power, as Brazil clearly embodies the term in certain ways and at certain times, but not in all. Much of the power of the emerging powers in global environmental governance has been an essentially negative power, stemming from their capacity to do a great deal of harm to their national environments and global environmental commons. Rampant deforestation in Brazil embodied this negative power for climate, biodiversity, and other environmental concerns. As deforestation dropped sharply in Brazil after 2005, it also began more varied and more constructive participation in international environmental negotiations, becoming a positive power as well—until it reversed course again after 2013. The chapter argues that the ambiguous material foundation of its power makes Brazil and other boundary cases more likely to exercise leadership inconsistently, and shows that Brazil in fact does so.