Abstract
This work investigates the Brazilian energy sector between 2018 and 2021 from the perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has affected the energy sector by widely changing consumption and behaviour patterns. This study is based on four layers of analysis: energy consumption, social isolation, greenhouse gas emissions, and household income data. This work correlates with how the pandemic affected the Brazilian energy scenario and whether it is possible to discuss consumption reduction and energy justice in the face of these factors. Thus, understanding the Brazilian context as a whole is sought in light of questions about reducing consumption, climate perspectives and decision-makers’ position and influence on the Brazilian energy sector. The results show a clear decrease in consumption for most fuels and sectors investigated. However, part of this decrease seems to be only pent-up demand and has unplanned, unsustainable origins, not correlated with the concept of energy justice. The observations of this study also address the perspective of climate resilience, given the challenges of dealing with the new paradigms of the global energy sector.
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Acknowledgements
Peyerl and Zacharias thank the current financial support of grant Process 2017/18208-8, 2018/26388-9 and 2020/02546-4, São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Mariana Ciotta thank especially Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), for the scholarship. All the authors gratefully acknowledge support from SHELL Brazil and FAPESP through the Research Centre for Gas Innovation (RCGI) (FAPESP Proc. 2014/50279-4 and 2020/02546-4), hosted by the University of São Paulo, and the strategic importance of the support given by ANP. This work was partially financed by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES).
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Ciotta, M., Peyerl, D., Zacharias, L.G.L. (2023). Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Brazilian Energy Sector. In: Peyerl, D., Relva, S., Da Silva, V. (eds) Energy Transition in Brazil. The Latin American Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21033-4_15
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