Department of Politics and International Relations
Brazil and COP30: Calling time on deforestation or agribusinesses as usual?
Posted on 12 September 2025
Professor Tony Heron , together with Dr Tomaz Fares and Dr Paulina Flores-Martinez , have published a new post on the University of Sheffield’s Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) Blog.
Their piece, “Brazil and COP30: Calling time on deforestation or agribusinesses as usual?” argues that ending deforestation in Brazil requires more than changes in rhetoric. It calls for a complete rethink of the country’s “neo-extractivist” development model and the system of political patronage that sustains it.
With COP30 taking place in Belém this November, the authors suggest the summit is an opportunity for Brazil to project environmental leadership across Latin America and the Global South. Yet they warn that recent moves such as CADE’s suspension of the Soy Moratorium highlight how deforestation problems are embedded in Brazil’s development model and political system, not confined to the Bolsonaro years.
Read the full blog on the SPERI website.