The role of the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the energy transition in Brazil

Abstract

Energy systems, with their technological characteristics and their environmental, social and economic impacts on energy production, transformation and end use, prove to be an essential and prominent sector for driving the development of a country. However, within Brazilian energy planning, economic interests have always been prioritized over related environmental aspects. The absence of an integrative and sustainable vision of the available resources prevented the environmental pillar from being equated with the economic and social pillars in the activities of the energy sector. In addition to this factor, there is an urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prevent the advance of warming of the terrestrial system. In this context, due mainly to the climate crisis, the theme of sustainable energy transition has been increasingly studied as a strategy to address this new global problem. The integration of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), as an instrument to support decision making within the national energy sector, has the potential to improve Brazilian energy planning towards environmental sustainability. Thus, this research project seeks to understand how SEA can induce the energy transition in Brazil, analyzing the evolution of the National Energy Plans and Decennial Energy Expansion Plans published until 2020 and identifying future transition perspectives. (AU)