Strategic climate litigation under the Brazilian Tax Reform: environmental protection principle and prevention of regressive effects as new entryways for litigations

Matheus Chebli de Abreu

Chapter 10 in Frontiers in the Low-carbon Transition, 2026, pp 166-186 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines whether the environmental taxation provisions introduced by Constitutional Amendment (EC) No. 132/2023 create new opportunities for strategic climate litigation in Brazil. It investigates whether the new rules on environmental taxation and prevention of regressive effects can serve as legal grounds for climate-related claims within structured process models of constitutional review. Using a bibliographic method to analyze theoretical frameworks and an empirical method to examine Brazilian and foreign case law, the study evaluates the potential for tax litigations to incorporate climate claims based on these new principles by testing the following hypothesis: ‘Articles 145, §§ 3rd and 4th; 153, item VIII, and 159-A, § 2nd, of the Brazilian Constitution can be used as legal grounds for strategic climate litigation’. Preliminary findings indicate that EC 132/2023 may support litigation targeting insufficient tax differentiation, harmful tax incentives, omissions in environmental tax design, misuse of development funds, and regressive impacts.

Keywords: Excise Tax; Tax Incentives; Environmental Taxation; Brazilian Tax Reform; Strategic Climate Litigation; Stealthy Climate Litigation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781049412115
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