Fiscal responses to the environmental crisis: how to guarantee resources for present and future floods

Reacting to the recent exteme flooding events, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, stated that despite known risks, he did not invest more resources in preventing disasters because the “fiscal issue” was the “imposed” agenda.

The imposition of fiscal rules on social, economic and environmental demands has become common in the speeches of Brazilian politicians, who claim there is no money to respond to the multiple crises we face.’

The problem is not new, and overcoming it does not lie in further cuts and privatization. Instead, Livi Gerbase (CICTAR researcher) Isabel Calligari and André Aranha, writing for Matinal-jornalismo in Brazil, propose five areas of fiscal policy that need to be explored more deeply in response to the crisis.