Through the sufficiency lens, Brazil has all the tools necessary to meet the needs of its people, but it must let go of what the Global North has imposed as "development". Today, development is almost exclusively associated with economic growth, but this association overlooks what truly matters: meeting basic human needs (Max-Neef, 1991). Sufficiency offers a way out by seeking a viable alternative to endless expansion and ensuring everyone has enough to meet their needs without causing social or environmental harm. As Thomas Princen (2025) argues, sufficiency is "a sense of enoughness and too muchness that leads to a practice of the right amount."
Brazil has a timely opportunity to start putting this into practice as the presidential elections are approaching. Moreover, there are two central debates in Brazilian environmental policy that could be addressed through sufficiency: deforestation and oil expansion.
The current government has set the goal of ending deforestation by 2030, and one proposed action to curb the problem is to use already degraded land for production, since Brazil has enough degraded land to avoid clearing more forest. This directly connects to sufficiency in several ways. First, it echoes Princen's (2025) definition of the right amount, since it would allow the country to produce enough to meet the population's food needs, without exceeding ecological limits. More specifically, it addresses relational sufficiency by allowing production for the community without depriving others of natural resources.
A similar idea could also apply to fossil fuels, which have been a point of tension for the current government, as President Lula is seen as a climate leader but has been criticized for his stance on oil, particularly regarding oil exploration in the Amazon basin. Sufficiency can be an answer to this problem. Contrary to most countries, Brazil has a strong renewable energy matrix and the capacity to meet its domestic energy needs. Expanding oil production serves only economic interests, largely driven by exports. Using sufficiency, the country could shift from "how much can we produce?" to "how much do we actually need?"
Some might question whether the country would have enough economic resources to meet basic needs after curbing agricultural expansion or oil development. This is where a broader discussion on sufficiency could start, as it provides different solutions, but one stands out: taxing the country's billionaires. This is not a new idea: Brazil already proposed it at the 2024 G20 meeting, and a bill on the topic is under discussion in the Brazilian Congress. Liam Shields (2019) argues that ensuring everyone has enough requires placing limits on accumulation above certain thresholds. By limiting or redirecting excess, Brazil could reduce its reliance on large-scale agribusiness and fossil fuel extraction.
Finally, there is a need to rethink development itself. Drawing on Max-Neef (1991), if the core of well-being is satisfying human needs rather than accumulating goods, we could use his participatory methods to answer the question: What do Brazilians actually need? To begin, municipalities could organize workshops to define priorities from the bottom up.
As the Global North has already industrialized and imposed climate constraints on those who haven't, it would be fascinating to see a country rich in natural resources and social diversity, such as Brazil, embark on a reinvention of the concept of development.