Just and Sustainable Energy Futures for the Isolated Communities in the Brazilian Amazon: An Energy Democracy Approach

巴西亚马逊地区偏僻社区的公正和可持续的能源未来：能源民主方法

• 批准号: 2876126
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Sussex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2876126
• 关键词: Just; Sustainable; Energy; Futures; Isolated

Worldwide, energy has become a central point of sustainable development as it represents a key element for any socioeconomic system (Guzowski et al., 2021). Guaranteeing access to clean, modern and affordable energy for all people is one of the biggest challenges of the energy transition, and the lack of it is known as energy poverty. Poor access to quality energy services generates social exclusion and limits development, mainly in countries that already have strong inequalities characteristics (Guzowski et al., 2021).This is the case in Brazil, where energy poverty persists in vulnerable communities that already suffer from the lack of other essential services (Bezerra et al., 2022). Energy poverty in Brazil is more prominent in the Northernregion, largely occupied by the Amazon Forest, because of the lack of public infrastructure in the rural areas which is also related to a wider context of geographical and economic isolation (Mazonne, 2020). Because of its isolation, most communities living in the Amazon are not connected to the National Interconnected System. Many of these communities are attended by the Isolated Systems. According to EPE (2022a), there are 212 Isolated Systems in the country which are historically supplied in their majority by diesel power plants (EPE, 2022a), a costly and pollutant approach that uses complex logistics (da Ponte et al., 2021).The Ministry of Mines and Energy is committed in investigating new solutions to aggregate more renewable energy technologies in the Isolated Systems (EPE, 2022). Despite the efforts, diesel-based solutions are still predominant, even in recent projects (EPE, 2022). The next auction for contracting new power capacity to the Isolated Systems will happen in 2023 (DOU, 2022) and new attempts to encourage renewable energy projects might appear.Mazzone (2020) highlights that policies for a long-term and successful energy transition in Brazilian Amazon must be designed around the needs of the final user in order to consider a more accurate projection of energy demand based on local people's sociocultural profile. Since the eyes of policymakers and other energy actors are turned to this issue, this is a crucial moment to guarantee that future energy policies in the isolated communities in the Amazon will then take a democratic path.A democratic energy future approach is related to the energy democracy concept, which recognizes the importance of widening the participation of diverse actors within energy politics by aiming to include to the debate historically marginalised groups, like low-income communities, communities of colour and indigenous communities (Burke & Stephens, 2017). Energy democracy then calls that important decisions regarding energy futures to be made by local communities and citizens instead of a small number of powerful corporations (Burke & Stephens, 2017).In this context, the central questions of this research proposal are: (1) what does a just and sustainable energy future mean to isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon?, and (2) which policy and regulatory instruments could be proposed to ensure a just and sustainable energy future to the isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon in the long term?To achieve this goal, the methodology of the research project involves interviewing local citizens to understand how communities themselves think a just and sustainable energy transition would be for answering question (1). To complement these interviews and aiming to answer question (2), a range of energy actors and policymakers, from federal to local level, will be also interviewed to explore how the communities' wishes could be realised. As an outcome, it is expected to provide valuable contributions to the national policymakers on which policy instruments should be applied to provide a just and sustainable energy future to the isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon in the long term?

在世界范围内，能源已成为可持续发展的中心点，因为它代表了任何社会经济体系的关键要素（Guzowski 等，2021）。保证所有人获得清洁、现代和负担得起的能源是能源转型的最大挑战之一，缺乏能源被称为能源贫困。难以获得优质能源服务会产生社会排斥并限制发展，主要是在已经存在严重不平等特征的国家（Guzowski 等，2021）。巴西就是这种情况，在已经遭受能源贫困的脆弱社区中，能源贫困持续存在。缺乏其他基本服务（Bezerra 等人，2022）。巴西的能源贫困在主要由亚马逊森林占据的北部地区更为突出，因为农村地区缺乏公共基础设施，这也与更广泛的地理和经济孤立背景有关（Mazonne，2020）。由于地处偏僻，居住在亚马逊地区的大多数社区都没有连接到国家互联系统。其中许多社区都有孤立系统参与。根据 EPE (2022a)，该国有 212 个隔离系统，历史上大部分由柴油发电厂供电（EPE，2022a），这是一种使用复杂物流的成本高昂且污染严重的方法（da Ponte 等人，2021） .矿业和能源部致力于研究新的解决方案，以在孤立系统中聚合更多可再生能源技术（EPE，2022）。尽管做出了这些努力，基于柴油的解决方案仍然占主导地位，即使在最近的项目中也是如此（EPE，2022）。下一次为孤立系统承包新电力容量的拍卖将于 2023 年进行（DOU，2022），并且可能会出现鼓励可再生能源项目的新尝试。Mazzone（2020）强调巴西长期和成功能源转型的政策亚马逊必须围绕最终用户的需求进行设计，以便根据当地人的社会文化概况更准确地预测能源需求。由于政策制定者和其他能源参与者的目光转向了这个问题，因此这是保证亚马逊地区孤立社区未来能源政策走上民主道路的关键时刻。民主的能源未来方法与能源有关民主概念，它认识到扩大能源政治中不同参与者参与的重要性，旨在将历史上边缘化的群体（如低收入社区、有色人种社区和土著社区）纳入辩论（Burke＆Stephens，2017）。能源民主则要求有关能源未来的重要决策应由当地社区和公民而不是少数强大的公司做出（Burke & Stephens，2017）。在此背景下，本研究提案的核心问题是：（1）公正和可持续的能源未来对巴西亚马逊偏远社区意味着什么？以及 (2) 可以提出哪些政策和监管工具来确保巴西亚马逊偏远社区长期公正和可持续的能源未来?为了实现这一目标，方法论该研究项目的一部分涉及采访当地居民，以了解社区本身如何看待公正和可持续的能源转型，以回答问题（1）。为了补充这些访谈并旨在回答问题（2），还将采访从联邦到地方各级的一系列能源参与者和政策制定者，以探讨如何实现社区的愿望。因此，预计它将为国家政策制定者提供宝贵的贡献，从长远来看，应应用哪些政策工具为巴西亚马逊偏远社区提供公正和可持续的能源未来？