XIX Interdisciplinary Seminar on Climate, Energy and Sustainability

Gabriela Reis

Disaster management analysis under systemic optics: environmental and social resilience calculation proposal

Aiming to promote a reflection on the relevance of the history of the relationship between human beings and the physical environment in disaster management, this work carried out an extensive bibliographical review whose initial objective was an analysis of the specific aspects that connect humans to physical space. This analysis aimed to envision a product for practical use in management, considering the challenges that are particular to every area susceptible to hazards, since disaster is a cultural phenomena. Thus, the analysis of the selected bibliography made it possible to create an equation whose result aims to help governments direct budget, mainly, to prevention or emergencies. This equation gives the result called "R factor", which refers to the resilience capacity that a community can possess before and after a disaster. The "R factor" equation carries variables with weights assigned, and to the "R Factor" results are assigned values called "Degree of Resilience", which is the final table for analyzing government budget and public policies. Thus, the results that go from -4 to 0 consider a community not resilient; the result 1 consider a community of low resilience; 2 of medium resilience; 3 of high resilience; and 4, in fact, resilient.

The advantage of using this equation is the perception that certain areas of the planet still need more resources specifically destined to post-disaster emergencies precisely because the capacity to adapt to the environment is lower than the speed of occurrence of natural events. Ideally, the resources allocated would only be for prevention and maintenance, however, what is observed is that many social losses occur precisely because there is no greater investment in the response to the event, on which the survival of many still depends.

Alexandru Gociu

Theorising Scope III Litigation: EU Environmental Law, Climate Rights, and Democratic Legitimacy

European climate litigation has recently taken a definitive "rights-turn." Rather than simply assessing broad state obligations, courts are increasingly demanding the strict accounting of Scope III value-chain emissions. Using the North Sea Fields case (Greenpeace Nordic and Natur og Ungdom v. Norway) and the EFTA Court’s advisory opinion as a lens, this paper investigates how EU environmental directives interact with domestic constitutional protections. The EFTA ruling explicitly recognized Scope III emissions as environmental "effects" under the EU Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive, effectively bridging the gap between local constitutional rights and international climate pledges. By eliminating traditional regulatory blind spots tied to extraterritorial pollution, EU law is now driving a model of "strong sustainability" that severely restricts new fossil fuel developments. However, adjudicating downstream global emissions creates real friction regarding the separation of powers. We must ask: is this shift a necessary, rights-based cure for the legislative gridlock seen in global climate governance? Or does pulling global climate externalities into local courtrooms threaten the institutional legitimacy of domestic judiciaries? Balancing these competing pressures is ultimately key to understanding the current trajectory of European energy policy and transnational climate justice.

Elena Frassinelli

Safeguarding Scientific Integrity: Legal and Governance Responses to the Politicization of Climate Advice

This presentation examines the political pressures increasingly shaping climate science and the advice offered by climate scientists to policymakers. As climate change has become one of the most politically contested scientific domains, advisers face growing pressure to soften or delay mitigation recommendations. Using select examples, such as successive IPCC assessments, the paper illustrates how policy expectations have already shifted to accommodate political timelines, threatening the independence of scientific advice.

Furthermore, the presentation explores how strategic disinformation campaigns, ranging from historical corporate tactics to modern online conspiracy theories, exploit public uncertainty regarding the boundaries of science, severely undermining evidence-based governance. Drawing on data from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s Silencing Science Tracker, as a paradigmatic case study, the presentation analyzes US government attempts since 2016 to restrict scientific research, education, and advisory bodies through censorship, budget cuts, and institutional restructuring. Ultimately, this paper argues that preserving a shared, verifiable methodology for establishing scientific consensus is essential for climate policy to remain grounded in evidence rather than ideology. It concludes by proposing concrete institutional and regulatory mechanisms designed to reinforce the independence, legal protection, and integrity of scientific advice in climate governance.

Tobias Gomez Chevalier

Argentina's International Insertion in Renewable Electricity Infrastructure Financing: Structural Dependence and the Limits of Energy Transition (2016–2026)

This thesis examines Argentina's international insertion in renewable electricity infrastructure financing between 2016 and 2026, situating the analysis within International Political Economy (IPE) and its Latin American variant. Framing energy transition as a structural arena of power rather than a purely technical process, the study asks how external capital flows—channeled through multilateral organizations, sovereign funds, and transnational corporations—interacted with Argentina's institutional capacity to shape renewable expansion. Employing a qualitative, historical-structural single case-study design, the research triangulates regulatory documents, multilateral institutions' reports, and semi-structured interviews with officials, financiers, and industry actors. It reconstructs three policy cycles—RenovAr (2016–2019), RenMDI (2023), and RIGI (2024–2026)—analyzed through two first-order categories: structural financial dependence (financing instruments, bankability conditionalities, and negotiating margins) and state institutional capacity (regulatory stability, interinstitutional coordination, and planning capabilities), linked by a transversal category of conditioned international insertion. The thesis argues that Argentina's renewable financing was configured under a pattern of structural financial dependence, wherein external actors defined access conditions with limited sovereign leeway, compounded by weak institutional capacity to absorb and orient capital flows toward structural development goals. Consequently, despite formally meeting renewable generation targets, international financing reproduced global asymmetries rather than reversing them, revealing persistent structural imbalances in Argentina's energy transition.

Lynn Dorrel Rebello

From Fossil Fuels to Carbon Sinks: A Comparative Regulatory Analysis of Repurposing Hydrocarbon Infrastructure for CO₂ Storage in the UK and Denmark

Carbon capture and storage is being widely regarded as one of the efficient ways to reach Net Zero, especially with the North Sea offering its depleted oil and gas reservoirs as storage sites for  . This transition, from an extraction regime to a carbon storage regime has raised many complex legal and regulatory questions. The presentation puts forward a comparative doctrinal analysis of the UK and Danish regulatory frameworks governing repurposing activities, and examines the extent to which each regime supports environmental protection and Net Zero goals.

The research discusses how both jurisdictions allot long-term risks, contrasting the UK’s 20-year liability transfer under the Energy Act 2023 and Petroleum Act 1998 with the State participation model of Denmark under its Consolidated Subsoil Act. Additionally, it evaluates the legal outcomes of re-authorising the existing hydrocarbon infrastructure and the open tension between classification of  CO₂ as “waste” under the London Protocol.

The analysis questions whether the current regulation presents a genuine long-term answer for decarbonisation or simply delays the environmental harm, and concludes with recommendations for both jurisdictions.

Luísa Sasaki Chagas

The Construction of a Regulatory Framework for Critical Minerals in Brazil

This study analyzes the construction of a regulatory framework for the critical minerals supply chain in Brazil, seeking to understand which regulatory model the country should adopt. The study is justified by the current global race for critical minerals, which has raised concerns about the socio-environmental impacts on communities affected by mining activities. The general objective is to understand the regulatory framework being developed in Brazil. The specific objectives are: a) to identify critical minerals and territorial conflicts in Brazil; b) to describe Brazilian regulation of critical minerals and the process of developing the national strategy for rare earth elements; c) to demonstrate the sector’s regulatory challenges for promoting sustainable economic and social development. The study draws on dependency theory to understand new forms of exploitation in historically peripheral countries, now presented under an environmentalist framework. The methodology comprises: a) a literature review; b) document analysis; and c) consultations with public agencies under the Access to Information Law and with companies through institutional channels. Thus, the study discusses international development agendas and the strategic plan for global governance in Latin America, incorporating both economic and environmental justice.