On World Environment Day, June 5, the world turns its attention to the environmental challenges that surround us every day. Faced with the climate crisis, political leaders around the world must seek ways to address the social, political and economic obstacles that environmental preservation and climate adaptation require. 

To understand these challenges and the fundamental role of training leaders capable of responding to the climate emergency, we spoke to Isabela Rahal, RenovaBR leader and Programme Manager of the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group. 

In an important year, with Brazil hosting COP30, Rahal points out that the climate crisis is also a political issue, which requires a strategic vision from political leaders committed to sustainability. 

World Environment Day invites us to reflect on the future of the planet. In your view, what is the role of political leaders in responding to the climate emergency?

Even though we may have some short-term actions, such as in terms of mitigation, the role of leadership is fundamental, because, unlike some other public policies, most of what we do today will only prove effective in the long term. 

In the context of the climate emergency we are experiencing, we need to take a new look at what we see in terms of development and public policy, and think in a cross-cutting manner. And even if the leadership is not from the climate area, it is essential to be aware of this and seek out the right experts to enable this perspective. 

You are part of the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group, which works precisely to promote collaboration between different actors in the face of the climate crisis. What lessons from this international experience would you highlight as essential for Brazil?

I manage projects, fund, support and forge connections so that we can use this collaboration in a way that increases climate ambition, climate commitments at a global level and at a local level. 

In terms of learning, the most important thing is that we are facing a problem that is global. In other words, even if the solution is local, it is necessary to be global in terms of commitment. This connection between implementation and political decisions, at the level of negotiation, at the international and national levels, needs to be very strong. And today we still don't have that. We have a gap, a huge gap between the decisions that are made at the global level and the implementation of these decisions at the local level. 

And this is our main challenge, which is also one of the main focuses of the Brazilian presidency of COP30, which is to ensure that an era of implementation begins. A lot is happening, many public policies, but we need to accelerate and make sure that our commitments translate into national and local policies. 

The climate emergency is, in many cases, felt most intensely by vulnerable communities. How can we ensure that environmental public policies take these inequalities into account?

More than ensuring environmental public policies that take inequalities into account, it is necessary to ensure policies that take social inequalities into account. They cannot be separated, because one cannot go forward without the other. 

For example, we need to develop the Amazon. The model we have today, which is the land grabbing model, is absolutely degrading for people, harms health, does not lead to social development, but it is what drives the local economy today. So, we can combat this to a certain extent. If we do not have a viable economic solution for the populations living in the Amazon, we cannot continue debating.

So, it is about developing in a sustainable way, changing the economic model to an economy that includes people and is environmentally sustainable. These things cannot be developed separately, it is impossible and it is not sustainable in the long term, neither from an environmental point of view nor from a social point of view. 

What is essential in the training of our leaders so that they are prepared to deal with this agenda? 

The essential thing is to understand that everything, in an absolutely transversal way, will have to consider climate change. The way we work on public policy and our planning needs to have this perspective in some way. 

For example, if we are going to design new public schools, we need to think about thermal comfort, the location, and even whether it is possible to have solar energy, which can reduce energy costs. In other words, we need to consider the impacts of climate change and what can be mitigated. 

So, it really is a complete change. It's thinking outside the box and changing the way we actually do things. That, unfortunately, takes time that we don't have. Understanding from political leaders is absolutely essential.

Brazil has enormous potential to play a leading role in the global environmental agenda. What is stopping us from taking on this role more forcefully — and how can new leaders change that?

Brazil is one of the countries with the cleanest energy matrix in the world, but there are some issues that still hold us back and prevent us from fully taking advantage of our potential as a green power. The main one is that it is not easy to change an entire economy and, for a long time, we have relied on unsustainable methods, such as selling oil. 

So this economic transition that needs to happen is challenging, it takes time and it is a very old problem in the country. There is a large percentage of the economy, of people who are currently political decision-makers, who do not think about the future, about how this will harm our international trade in the long term, and how this will harm people's lives in the long term.

And of course, we also have the issue of deforestation, which is still a huge challenge. We need to find ways to develop the economy in the Amazon, to take advantage of its full socio-bioeconomic potential, in a way that makes it possible to truly make an economic exchange. 

This is complex and takes time, but if we really have a project for the country, if we are committed to long-term development and to being a leader, we need to stop looking at the short term and look at the country as a whole and make difficult decisions; looking at a horizon of 10, 20, 30, 50 years. Not in the next elections.