A study conducted at USP compared the actions of both cities and found that only the capital of Pernambuco incorporates climate justice into its urban planning
Separated by the Atlantic Ocean and located in different hemispheres, Recife and London share a common challenge: both cities are facing increasingly severe floods and heatwaves. Yet, while Recife integrates climate justice into its urban planning, London does not consider poverty a relevant factor in its climate adaptation strategies. This analysis comes from the doctoral research of Marcos Tavares, who earned a PhD in Environmental Science from USP’s Institute of Energy and Environment (IEE). He warns that, unless London strengthens its flood mitigation plans, the British metropolis could become as vulnerable to such events as Recife.
Climate justice is a concept that seeks to ensure that responses to the climate crisis are equitable, inclusive, and protective of the most vulnerable and historically marginalized populations – such as Black, Indigenous, and riverside communities – who disproportionately suffer the impacts of climate change.
Tavares has been studying climate change for 15 years. According to him, it is essential to consider the human dimension in these studies, as people are not equally affected by risk events. “Climate justice is like a fusion of social justice with the climate element. Social injustices are not increased but intensified by climate issues,” explains the researcher.
His dissertation compares the responses to climate events in both cities, examining how climate justice manifests in different contexts and how governments address the needs of groups most vulnerable to climate extremes. Tavares describes his research topic as complex, as it requires navigating multiple fields of knowledge to approach the issue comprehensively. During his PhD, he analyzed academic websites and legislation, conducted interviews, and combined insights from biology and the social sciences.
Recife: a city under water
Recife lies on a floodplain – a gently sloping terrain formed by river sediments. As the (portuguese) name suggests, the city’s geography and its more than 100 water bodies make it prone to flooding. Combined with poor urban planning, these factors make the area highly vulnerable to climate extremes.
The city’s fragility is such that academic studies, government agencies, and news outlets have labeled Recife the 16th most vulnerable city to climate events in the world. However, Tavares’s research concluded that this information is false. The claim is often attributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the 2014 report of the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change (PBMC), neither of which produces such rankings. “I found that this information is, in fact, a massive game of telephone,” he says.
This misconception does not diminish the real crises the city faces during rainfall. Tavares lives in Recife and was there in 2022, when heavy rains and landslides resulted in 144 deaths and displaced 122,000 people. The disaster occurred two years after the creation of the city’s Local Climate Action Plan (Plac-Recife) in 2020. According to his dissertation, the plan was the first in Brazil to be based on the principle of climate justice but failed during its implementation by not directly engaging with the populations most affected by extreme events in their daily lives.
“There was a boom period, with numerous public policies, studies, and the city government participating in various climate change initiatives. Then it all faded and simply disappeared. Now the Plac no longer has institutional support,” Tavares comments. In interviews, he heard accounts from residents of hillside neighborhoods who still have not been able to return to their homes after the 2022 disaster.
London: too fair to consider justice?
Tavares concluded that London does not incorporate climate justice into its Climate Emergency Action Plan, released in 2022. According to the researcher, the city is among the most resilient to climate events, yet also one of the most vulnerable. He conducted part of his research in the United Kingdom in 2023, during a doctoral exchange program (sandwich PhD) at the University of Surrey.
London has experienced flooding in recent years caused by both heavy rainfall and rising sea levels. Extreme temperatures – both heat and cold – are also pressing concerns. Between June 23 and July 2 this year, the city recorded 263 deaths due to heatwaves, according to The Independent. Moreover, a 2024 report by the UK Department for Work and Pensions revealed that more than 30% of British children live in relative poverty.
Recife and London share common goals in their climate emergency plans, such as reducing inequality, promoting sustainability, and fostering adaptation. However, certain differences reflect the unique realities of each location – for instance, basic sanitation is addressed only in the Brazilian document, while adaptation to cold weather appears exclusively in the UK plan. A distinctive feature of Pernambuco’s approach, Tavares notes, is its explicit focus on social justice.
As part of his study, the researcher observed that “climate justice is not a concern [in the Global North] within the framework of municipal governance. Poverty, for example, is not mentioned in discussions about climate change. The concern is whether streets will flood or how many deaths will occur due to heatwaves.” According to Tavares, developed countries tend to view social justice as “an international policy to save the world” – an idea that appears in research discourse but is largely absent from domestic policymaking.
Who’s going under?
Tavares explains that the hillsides of Recife “are different, for example, from urban settlements like Rocinha, which are also located on hills but are more enduring. When it rains, the rock holds firm. In Recife’s case, there is no such structural support, so the tendency is for the hills to dissolve,” he says. Depending on where people live, the consequences of climate events can be more severe and longer-lasting.
The areas at highest risk of landslides are predominantly inhabited by low-income populations. These same communities also have the least capacity to recover after floods, which affect nearly the entire city. Beyond income distribution, LGBTQ+ individuals, for instance, “are more vulnerable to becoming part of the homeless population or being expelled from their homes. This also increases their vulnerability. The homeless population is the most vulnerable group in our society,” the researcher notes.
These inequalities manifest not only within different areas of cities but also on a global scale. Developing and underdeveloped countries – such as Brazil – are among those most affected by climate change, while the Global North bears the greatest responsibility for the crisis.
Paradoxically, the concept of climate justice originated in the Global North. “At the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, held in 1991 in Washington, D.C., 17 Principles of Environmental Justice were established — the first of which affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth,” writes Tavares.
*Intern under the supervision of Antônio Carlos Quinto and Silvana Salles
English version: Nexus Traduções, edited by Denis Pacheco
