On May 3, the student and professor at the Public Policy Institute (IPP), Rylanneive Leonardo Pontes Teixeira, presented, under the guidance of professor Zoraide Pessoa, the first doctoral defense of the Postgraduate program in Urban and Regional Studies (PPEUR), at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). Entitled “Renewable energies in the Northeast of Brazil and relations with adaptation to climate change”, the work investigated how the states of Northeast Brazil have adaptive capabilities in relation to climate change.
The research brings to discussion and debate two issues that are at the heart of the contemporary socio-environmental crisis, with emphasis on climate adaptation and renewable energy. The Doctoral thesis is linked to two central research projects. The first of these is the national project “Sustainability, climate adaptation, energy and socio-diversity of territories: a comparative analysis of government case studies in the context of the Brazilian Northeast”. The second project, at an international level, is “Renewable energy and Decarbonization in South America: paths and challenges that connect the Argentine lithium sector and Brazilian wind farms”.
In the conclusions, the author points out, based on the results obtained from the research, that the adaptive capabilities to climate change in Bahia, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte (states of the research locus) are still little incorporated by their governments and institutional actors, including not dialoguing with other actors, such as those from the private sector and civil society.