Energy rich but environmentally threatened Brazil can become a global clean energy powerhouse while making a unique contribution to pushing back the despoiling of the environment in the Amazon region, according to a new World Bank Group report released earlier this month. Asserting that the South American powerhouse can be “both richer and greener” the Report outlines action that Brazil can take to realize both climate action and growth, simultaneously.
The World Bank Country Climate Report said the country can realize these twin goals by adapting a development plan that grows more food on less land that better protect the forests. It adds that the country can, simultaneously, grow its economy and fight climate change by making relatively modest investments in agriculture and deforestation, the energy sector, and cities and transport systems. In its report the World Bank asserts that ”climate shocks could push between 800,000 and 3,000,000 Brazilians into extreme poverty as soon as 2030” adding that to avoid this the country must “accelerate investments towards a resilient and low carbon growth pathway” according to the Bank’s Country Director for Brazil Johannes Zutt.
To realize this, the World Bank recommends that Brazil “take full advantage of its potential” by investing “0.8 percent of its annual GDP each year between now and 2030”. The Bank says that it is committed to working together with the Brazilian government “to achieve its development goals while delivering on climate action.” The report says that with almost half of the country’s energy supply, including more than 80% of its electricity already deriving from renewables, compared with world averages of between 15 and 27%, Brazil is already in a strong position to source more renewable energy. The report adds that while increased investment in renewables would mean higher upfront costs for the country, adding more clean energy would not, in the longer term, be more expensive for Brazil than the country’s current plans to expand fossil fuel generation.
It says, further, that increased investment in renewable energy would be fully recouped by savings in fuel and operations costs. It adds that any move in the transport and industry sectors to higher levels of electrification and green hydrogen, produced with wind and solar instead of gas, would not increase costs for the country’s economy. The report also points to what it says is Brazil’s big competitive advantage in the growing global market for greener goods and services, noting that the country’s private sector is already competitive in several products required for moving away from fossil fuels, including those related to wind turbines and parts for electric motors and generators. Additionally, it recommends that Brazil enter markets for solar power products, expand into green hydrogen, and profit from its major deposits of climate-relevant minerals.
