For the original article by Preto Zezé published in O Globo, click here.
For an ecological transition to be just and effective, it must start where the State fails to reach—or only shows up with repression and neglect.
Climate change is, first and foremost, an urban crisis. The most violent and visible effects of the climate crisis are concentrated in cities: floods sweep away lives and histories, heat waves suffocate neighborhoods lacking green spaces, landslides expose the abandonment of favelas, and inadequate sanitation becomes a vector for disease.
If the impact is urban, so should the solution. The problem is that many cities still treat the environmental agenda as distant, technical, confined to conferences and reports in English. But it’s present in open-air sewers, flooded streets, lack of shade, precarious transport, and trash piled up where there should be public squares, care, and life.
We must abandon the idea that the green agenda is separate from the urban and social. For the ecological transition to be just and effective, it must start where the State fails to reach—or only shows up with repression and neglect. This requires more than planting trees: it requires planting power. Because the root of the problem is political and economic.
Any master plan is a map of political choices. Who gets to live where? What can be built? How much goes to roads and how much to bike lanes? How much to sewage, drainage, culture, housing, coastal protection? These decisions are not neutral—and almost never made by those who live where impacts hit hardest.
Symbolic participation is not enough. The favela must participate with quality and power: power to influence the budget, to decide its own direction, to transform the space where it lives. Because participation without power is mere spectacle. And a budget without participation is imposition.
An example of this is how “climate resilience” is conceived. The term is trendy, but the concept remains elitist. People talk about sustainable neighborhoods, yet the green favelas that already exist are ignored—communities that recycle out of necessity, share as part of their culture, invent solutions due to lack of resources. These practices are neither copied nor funded, and are often criminalized.
What would a truly resilient city look like? One that listens to those who already live at risk. One that turns roofs into solar panelsalleys into rain gardens, vacant lots into community gardensand rooftops into cultural centers. A city that redefines zoning based on climate justicenot just speculation. One that distributes greenery, water, wind, and shade as rights—not privileges for the few.
This calls for a different model of governance: integrated, transparent, participatory. And a rethink of where and how decisions are made—especially budgetary ones. Without a budget, any plan is just pretty paper. Today, much of urban decision-making happens without listening to those who will be most affected.
It’s time to flip the switch. The climate debate must leave air-conditioned offices and walk down the overheated ravines. Swap cold charts for maps of human affection. Listen to the favela resident before the AND consultant.
COP30 must engage with and walk alongside the favela. Because the future of cities will be defined by climate—and it will only be just if it is collective.
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