The Parliamentary Observatory on Climate Change and Just Transition (OPCC), led by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) of the United Nations, convened the workshop “Building a Conceptual Framework for Green and Inclusive Productive Development for Legislators in Latin America and the Caribbean” held at the Applied Economics Research Institute (IPEA)’s headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 22, 2026. The workshop brought together approximately 20 international experts, practitioners, and legislators to promote a deep-dive debate into the role of the Legislative branch in promoting green and inclusive productive development, as well as to lay the foundations for the development of a relevant conceptual framework of these policies tailored to the parliamentary audience. Throughout the discussions, participants reflected on the functions of legislatures within productive development policies, the institutional and regulatory conditions required to support sustainable structural transformation, and possible approaches to defining and categorizing legislation related to green and inclusive productive development.

The workshop was coordinated by the OPCC Coordinator, Gabriela Oliveira, and facilitated by Camila Gramkow, Director of the ECLAC Brazil Office. Participants included Marco Llinás (ECLAC), President Luciana Servo (IPEA), Federal Deputy Eduardo Bandeira de Mello of Brazil, City Councilor Eduardo Zanatta of Balneário Camboriú, Brazil, legislative consultants from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and Federal Senate, Raquel Mesquita, Matheus Dalloz and Pedro Garrido, Professors Ha-Joon Chang and Antonio Andreoni (SOAS University of London), Professors João Carlos Ferraz and Júlia Torracca (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRJ), Pedro Miranda (IPEA), Camila Rizzini Freitas (Celso Furtado Center), Thiago Holanda (National Development Bank, BNDES), Fabrício Silveira (National Confederation of Industry, CNI); and Iago Hairon (Open Society Foundations, OSF).

The discussions marked the kick-off of the OPCC initiative to lay the foundations of a conceptual framework on green and inclusive productive development for legislators in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based on the reflections and insights shared at the workshop, the OPCC is launching a participatory knowledge-building process that will culminate in a technical report detailing a conceptual and analytical framework tailored to the role of legislatures in advancing green and inclusive productive development in the region, as well as case studies examining legislative experiences across selected countries. This process will also support the incorporation of legislative data on green and inclusive development policies into the OPCC Legislative Tracker, available at opcc.cepal.org