Climate Justice in Climate Action Plans: An Analysis of the Transport Sector

Abstract

To address climate challenges, Brazilian municipalities have been developing their Climate Action Plans (PLACs). However, there is no standardized regulatory or methodological framework to guide the formulation of these plans, leading to heterogeneous approaches that are often misaligned with fundamental principles of climate justice. The absence of unified criteria hinders the assessment of PLACs' adequacy in the context of urban transport—a critical sector both in terms of pollutant gas emissions and socio-environmental impacts. This challenge is further compounded by the need to ensure that the burden of climate change does not disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. Thus, this study aims to propose an index that assesses the adequacy of PLACs in advancing climate justice within the transport sector. The proposed index can guide decision-makers in evaluating the effectiveness of existing measures and identifying the need for new initiatives. To achieve this, the transport-related content of PLACs from ten Brazilian cities was analyzed. Furthermore, strategies aimed at enhancing climate justice in the transport sector were prioritized using a multi-criteria analysis. These strategies include emission reduction, access to opportunities, education and social participation, development of resilient transport systems, implementation of sustainable infrastructure, and air quality monitoring. A questionnaire was administered to experts in the field to determine the weighting of these measures and strategies. The predominant strategies identified in PLACs involve expanding public transport fleets with electric or lower-emission vehicles and improving both public and active transportation. The results indicate that the mitigation measure that contributes most to climate justice is the integration of socio-cultural aspects and social participation. Conversely, among adaptation measures, prioritizing sustainable infrastructure was identified as the most significant. Finally, the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro (0.737) and João Pessoa (0.632) achieved the highest index scores.