Abstract
Achieving sustainability is a complex issue because of the lack of a precise definition of the term. Very recently, science has acknowledged that the human species has become the main driver of transformations in bio-geophysical systems, and has identified boundaries to be respected if a systemic planetary disruption is to be avoided. 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. 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.
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Viola, E., Basso, L. (2016). Low Carbon Green Economy: Brazilian Policies and Politics of Energy, 2003–2014. In: Brauch, H., Oswald Spring, Ú., Grin, J., Scheffran, J. (eds) Handbook on Sustainability Transition and Sustainable Peace . Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43884-9_38
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