Dr Eric Cezne

• Co-editor, Edited Volume: "Africa’s Global Infrastructures: How transnational practices are (re)made in South–South relations" – w/ Jana Hönke & Yifan Yang (University of Bayreuth), IAI African Arguments series, Hurst & Co.
• Co-applicant, Seed Funding Project: "Transformative investments in green hydrogen in the Global South" – w/ Kei Otsuki & Johan Scott (Utrecht University).
• Co-editor, Special Issue: "'Valeu a pena?' (Was it worth it?): Taking stock of Vale’s mining operations in Africa" – w/ Ana Saggioro Garcia (PUC-Rio), The Extractive Industries and Society.

Dr Eric Cezne joined the research group 'Legitimation and Delegitimation in Global Cooperation' in September 2022 and will be a Postdoc Research Fellow at the Centre until August 2023.

The New Right and the Co-production of Environmental Governance in the Brazilian Amazon

Brazil’s New Right, epitomized by the rise of President Jair Bolsonaro, is often seen as a negative and destructive force in global (environmental) cooperation. Particularly in the Amazon, the current Brazilian administration has rejected scientific consensus on the climate crisis, reversed decarbonization pledges, and fanned the flames of controversy. While acknowledging that this posits significant hindrances for multilateralism and its ability to cooperate on global environmental challenges, this project nuances that picture. It provides much needed insights into the intersection of radical right ecopolitical thought and environmental governance, which remains under-explored and scantly theorized, especially in the Global South.

In doing so, this project scrutinizes what it sees as a legitimacy paradox: while seemingly environmental pariahs – and thus sociologically illegitimate – under liberal structures, radical right-wing leaders, parties, movements, and ideologies in Brazil are vested with legitimate mandates to co-produce and shape the direction and dynamics of environmental, climate, and sustainability agendas in the Amazon. Transcending mere “anti-environmental”, “eco-fascist”, or “climate denialist” labels, the study aims to qualify critical readings of forces that are no longer constricted to the margins of international relations and crucially shape the politics of (global) environmental governance.

• South-South relations
• Extractive industries
• Sustainability transitions
• The New Right in the Global South
• Green hydrogen