Brazil Tepid on Renewable Energy

Greenpeace claims that the recent agreements concluded last
month between Brazil and China for the construction of coal-fired
plants and the resumption of the Brazilian nuclear program are
contrary to the position adopted by the country in the past. This
position represents a step backwards for Brazil, says Greenpeace.

Nádia Faggiani

Itaipu
Brazil stands to lose international financing and its leadership position in the world, if the government defends the inclusion of hydroelectric plants in its projects to generate renewable energy. This is the opinion of the NGO's that are participating in the World Renewable Energy Conference, which is being held in Bonn, Germany.

According to the advisory office of the Minister of Energy, Dilma Rousseff, this is the position defended by the Brazilian government at the Conference, which ends June 4. Rousseff will also speak on behalf of Latin America and the Caribbean.

For the coordinator of the Greenpeace energy campaign, Sérgio Dialetachi, Brazil's position will give the entire world the impression that the country is not interested in producing renewable energy or in receiving international support and financing.

Dialetachi said that this position represents a step backwards from the Rio+10 Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, when Brazil supported the proposal to raise the share of renewable energy sources to 10 percent of the global energy matrix by the year 2010.

At present, 4 percent of the value of loans made by the World Bank (IBRD), for example, is earmarked for new renewable sources, and, if this percentage is raised to 10 percent, the investment can increase from US$ 80 million to US$ 200 million.

"Brazil is the champion of renewable energy, and we do not need to make the same mistakes as those committed in planting sugarcane; instead, we can use plants to extract energy for fuels, the so-called biomass.

"Brazil also has an eolic energy research center in Pernambuco, and professors from there teach classes in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany, the countries that are the biggest users of wind energy in the world. Despite this, Brazil does not have a national industry to generate energy from the sun or the wind," laments the coordinator of the Greenpeace energy campaign.

Dialetachi claims that the recent agreements concluded last month between Brazil and China for the construction of coal-fired plants and the resumption of the Brazilian nuclear program are contrary to the position adopted by the country in the past, when it led important movements.

A consultant from the NGO Vitae Civilis, Delcio Rodrigues, asserts that big hydroelectric projects, in addition to not being sustainable, cause environmental and social impacts.

The NGO's are proposing that an international agreement be elaborated at the Bonn Conference for the exclusive development of new renewable energy sources, with the minimum possible environmental impact. These include solar and eolic energy, the utilization of biomass residues, and small hydroelectric plants.

Altogether, representatives of 90 countries are participating in the encounter. They will assume mutual commitments and sign a joint declaration that should serve, politically, to influence the decisions of the IBRD and other international banks.

Nuclear Plant Angra III

The Minister of Science and Technology, Eduardo Campos, said June 1, in Rio, that the federal government should decide by the end of this year whether or not to build the Angra III nuclear energy plant on the southern coast of the state, where Angra I and II are already located.

Campos explained that the decision should emerge before November, when studies ordered by the Ministry of Mines and Energy, and carried out by a commission appointed specifically for this purpose, will be concluded.

According to the Minister, the continuation of Brazil's Nuclear Program, which in its initial form envisioned a total of seven nuclear energy plants, some of them in the Northeast region of the country, also depends upon the decision over the construction of the Angra plant.

"This issue of continuing the nuclear program is being studied by the federal government, which ordered studies for this purpose. This decision is linked to the need for alternative energy sources, especially now with this matter of the rekindling of the petroleum crisis."

Nádia Faggiani works for Agência Brasil (AB), the official press agency of the Brazilian government. Comments are welcome at lia@radiobras.gov.br

Translated from the Portuguese by David Silberstein.