Energias renováveis no Nordeste do Brasil e as relações com a adaptação às mudanças climáticas

Abstract

Climate change is a socio-environmental risk, with impacts, above all, on those social and environmental systems that are most vulnerable, although they are not the main ones responsible for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, contributing to global warming and, thus, to climate change in a more rapid and accelerated manner. Thus, these systems are inserted in contexts of socio-environmental and climate injustices, because they are the ones that contribute the least to the changes in the environment and climate, but suffer the most from their impacts. These systems also tend to be inserted in contexts of energy injustice: that is, while these systems are more socially and environmentally vulnerable, they are also the ones that suffer most from the lack of access to energy supply systems, for example. In this sense, it is necessary to understand what has been done by governments and other actors (such as the private sector and civil society) to address these vulnerabilities. As an alternative, renewable energies, such as wind and solar, are put forward as an approach to mitigating CO2 emissions, to the detriment of climate adaptation. In light of this contextualization, the overall objective of this PhD thesis is to investigate how the states of Bahia, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte build adaptive capacities to climate change by incorporating renewable energies as strategies from the point of view of climate mitigation and, above all, climate adaptation. In order to carry out this analysis, case studies were developed in Bahia, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, in the Northeast of Brazil, using documentary research, secondary data and field research, with the application of semi-structured interview scripts to government, private sector and civil society actors that are integrated to climate and energy issues in the investigated states. Data analysis is carried out through content analysis. The results of this research unfold in the following findings: 1. Although the analyzed states are highly vulnerable to climate threats, they are not the main contributors to CO2 emissions in the panorama of the Brazilian Northeast, presenting, on the other hand, renewable wind energy and solar as an ally in that sense. This is because they are territories highly producers of these sources, contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions, but also with climate adaptation; 2. The state public policies on renewable energy and climate change have a number of gaps and obstacles, with the need to strengthen them so that it is possible to build a response capacity to climate change by these states, incorporating renewable energy as a strategy, mainly, of climate adaptation; and 3. The investigated states do not present adaptive capacities to climate change, nor do they consider incorporating renewable energies as a strategic goal for the construction and effectiveness of these capacities, mitigating vulnerabilities and socio-environmental risks. Based on these results, we conclude that climate adaptive capacity in Bahia, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte is challenging for their governments, without integration with other social actors, even in a territorial context of high production of wind and solar energies, where these sources are not understood as a mitigation approach, nor as an adaptation one.