Integrating culture into climate policies, insights with Eduardo Carvalho

Interview with Eduardo Carvalho, by Selva Ozelli Esq., CPA, Author of "Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally". By Selva Ozelli Esq., CPA, Author of "Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally"
Eduardo Carvalho Curator of exhibitions and Founder director of Outra Onda Conteúdo – Brazil
Tell us about your personal and educational journey that led you to your career as a curator
I am a curator, cultural manager, and founder-director of Outra Onda Conteúdo, a company based in Brazil. We work at the intersection of culture and science to create projects and exhibitions. Our goal is to deepen public engagement with urgent social issues, including the climate crisis. My practice focuses on translating complex scientific and environmental themes into accessible, emotionally resonant cultural experiences.
I served as associate curator and artistic editor at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, where I contributed to exhibitions that collectively attracted more than one million visitors. I was also part of the curatorial team of the Rio Olympic Museum, inaugurated last year, helping shape its narrative and visitor experience. Throughout my career, I have curated exhibitions addressing social and environmental themes, including the Amazon, the ocean, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other global challenges. Currently, I am involved in the conception of a new museum dedicated to Brazil's biomes.
I hold a Master's degree in Creative Economy Management and was awarded the Chevening Clore Fellowship by the UK government in 2019.
Before entering the cultural sector, I worked as a journalist covering science and environmental issues. Since 2010, I have reported on environmental, scientific, and social justice topics, including as a reporter and editor for Globo, Latin America's largest media group. My work included international reporting in some countries, and a defining experience was travelling to Antarctica to document the work of Brazilian scientists at the national research base.
Also, I started covering climate negotiations at COP16 in Cancun in 2010 (it was my first COP). Then, I worked writing stories during Rio+20, in 2012, and COP20, in Lima, Peru, a year before to change my career for the cultural sector.
Tell us about your initiatives to integrate culture into climate policies in Brazil and your involvement with establishing these projects.
In 2021, I was invited to join the team that coordinated the Brazilian civil society pavilion at COP26 in Glasgow. The Brazil Climate Action Hub functioned as a paradiplomatic space where subnational governments, non-governmental organisations, Indigenous peoples, and traditional communities came together to demonstrate that Brazilian climate policy was still alive, despite the federal government at the time.
During this period, I developed cultural programming and exhibitions for the space, turning it into a hub that not only welcomed people but also told a powerful story through culture.
From that point on, the culture and climate agenda began to take shape within my professional work. Projects carried out in Egypt, Dubai, Azerbaijan, and Brazil brought experiences and exhibitions that highlighted stories of climate solutions emerging from the Global South, from science, from ethical debates, and from social organisations across different parts of the world.
This agenda is reflected in Projects developed in Brazil, as well as in some exhibitions and experiences in museums and cultural centres. Even so, there was still a gap in the Culture and Climate agenda: how to bring this topic into negotiations and how to further promote the creation of narratives on this theme in its many forms. With that in mind, Outra Onda Conteúdo partnered with the philanthropic organisation C de Cultura to create the Culture and Climate research initiative in 2024.
Talk more about the Culture and Climate research and about its impact.
The research line emerged in 2024 with the development of an e...