What is it about?
A low carbon green economy—a development model in which environmental concerns are at the same level as economic and social concerns—is a good paradigm for guiding policy-making that aims at respecting these boundaries; and it includes the objective of the decarbonization of energy systems in order to mitigate climate change, the most studied and best understood of the boundaries. Having these parameters in mind, this chapter shows how Brazilian policies and politics of energy evolved in the period between 2003 and 2014. It identifies an upward and later downward trend in the production of energy from low carbon sources, and a stable trend in energy efficiency.
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Why is it important?
It concludes that, despite the higher proportion of low carbon energy sources in the Brazilian energy matrix compared with other countries, Brazil has not yet embraced the low carbon green economy or the decarbonization paradigms: in spite of significant forces promoting both these, important political and cultural features are preventing them from being adopted.
Perspectives
As well as tackling crony capitalism, minimizing short-term thinking should be taken very seriously. Brazil lacks strategic planning at all levels, from government policies to household budgets; measures take into account specific situations, usually urgent ones, and often create contradictory situations when seen in succession. Recent socio-economic policies that have been successful in reducing economic inequality spread irresponsible consumerism—encouraged by the government—throughout social groups, revealing that the pattern lies much deeper in Brazilian culture.
Professor Eduardo Viola
University of Brasilia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Low Carbon Green Economy: Brazilian Policies and Politics of Energy, 2003–2014, January 2016, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-43884-9_38.
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