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Brazil: (Future) green energy power and strategic partner for the EU?

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This article explores and compares self- and xeno-visions of Brazil’s energy policy in relation to the European Union (EU) and the other BRICS countries. Brazil’s competence as ‘green’ or ‘environmental power’ is often highlighted in view of its ascending role in international relations. Yet, its diverse and green domestic energy matrix of around 45 per cent renewables is a mixed blessing. The EU and Brazil seem natural partners in their normative orientation towards sustainability, but empirical evidence from our media analysis of the two leadings dailies – Folha de Sao Paulo and Valor Economico – and expert interviews in Brasilia and Brussels suggest a picture of normative discrepancies in interpreting the guiding norms of sustainability, competitiveness and security.

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Notes

  1. Khandekar, Gauri, 2011. The EU and India. A loveless arranged marriage, FRIDE Policy Brief 90, Madrid.

  2. Article from Folha de Sao Paulo, published on 17 November 2013. Section: Market, Entitled: Brasil quer gerar energia com onda do mar.

  3. Opinion stated by the Director General from the National Operator Electric System (ONS), Hermes Chipp, in the article from Folha entitled: ‘A antiapagão é adiada para “segurar” conta de luz’, 19 December 2012.

  4. ‘Os resquicios do meu complexo de vira-lata deram arrancos triunfais de cachorro atropelado, como diría Nelson Rodrigues’. From the article: Brics com direito de veto no ‘FMI do B’ from Folha de Sao Paulo, 26 November 2009.

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Correspondence to Carolina Guimarães.

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Guimarães, C., Piefer, N. Brazil: (Future) green energy power and strategic partner for the EU?. Comp Eur Polit 15, 23–44 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2016.12

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