Race for clean energy is not harmless, say NGOs – 01/31/2024 – Environment

Twenty-nine social or environmental protection organizations released this Wednesday (31) a proposal for new rules for authorizations for the construction of wind and solar energy generation parks in the country.

The objective is to discuss protection mechanisms against the risks and impacts that these projects impose on territories and their inhabitants. In December, a report from Sheet showed that the race for clean energy has intensified socio-environmental conflicts, mainly in the Northeast.

“Although they carry the clean energy label, the way large wind and solar plants and their
transmission lines being installed in the Brazilian Northeast is far from harmless”, says the document, entitled “Environmental Safeguards for Renewable Energy”.

Concerns range from the impact on traditional communities and small farmers to environmental issues, such as threats to native species and flora — in 2022, the MapBiomas platform detected deforestation by wind and solar plants in the Northeast for the first time.

“Brazil is able to make an immense contribution to global decarbonization”, says the text. “But this cannot be done at the expense of historically exploited, marginalized and vulnerable people and populations.”

One of the proposals is the definition of exclusion zones for projects, defined based on dialogue with the inhabitants and the environmental premises of each territory, including the principles of precaution and prevention.

“The use of land for food and water production, environmental conservation and maintenance of the territories, cultures and ways of life of indigenous peoples and traditional communities cannot be made impossible to the detriment of commercial and large-scale energy production.”

In this sense, the group proposes that in these territories, generation be based on decentralized, community and self-managed solar models, with less impact on the way of life and production than large generating parks, which occupy vast areas.

The document also proposes rules for contracts between entrepreneurs and land owners, considered by entities to be abusive, due to their long terms, restrictions on land use and the amounts paid to owners.

In this sense, it proposes legal support for communities, greater remuneration and mitigation of damages also for neighbors, who often suffer the impacts but do not receive financial compensation.

Entities also question the licensing process for projects, in most cases carried out by state environmental agencies. According to them, the model is ineffective, generates regulatory confusion and a lack of procedural transparency and has little social participation.

“Environmental licensing should be an important instrument to mitigate and compensate for impacts and
damage. However, in practice, the existing process has been insufficient to respond to the advancement of central
of wind and solar energy generation in the Northeast”, states the text.

In 2022, according to MapBiomas, renewable energy was responsible for the deforestation of 4,291 hectares. “The data is especially worrying because the expansion is taking place in two highly threatened and poorly protected biomes, the cerrado and the caatinga”, say the entities.

They also ask that Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency) consider socio-environmental aspects when analyzing the granting of projects, which today mainly considers restrictions in the Brazilian electricity sector.

In an interview with Sheet in December, the president of Abeeólica (Brazilian Association of Wind Energy Companies), Elbia Gannoun, acknowledged problems in implementing initial projects, but said that the sector has been working to resolve them and avoid their repetition in the future.

The association plans to launch a best practice guide this year to try to improve the development of projects and their relationship with communities, including suggesting models of lease contracts.

Absolar, which represents solar generators, said in a statement that “the vast majority of these projects are built in locations with lower demographic density and on land that is already anthropized and has low productivity, which would not normally be used for other activities.”

The implementation of the projects, he continued, “meets strict legal, regulatory and environmental requirements, including regarding their licensing, mitigation and compensation for possible impacts on the surrounding area” and is accompanied by interactions with local communities.

One of the countries with great potential to lead the energy transition, Brazil has doubled its wind energy production capacity and increased its solar generation capacity six-fold in the last five years.

And the pace should remain intense in the coming years: in 2023 alone, Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency) has already granted concessions to 1,614 new solar and 317 wind farms. With a good incidence of light and sun, the Northeast region and the north of Minas Gerais concentrate most of the projects.

“Brazil needs to decide whether a fair energy transition is in the national interest or not”, say the signatory entities of the document released this Thursday.

“If so, it also needs to treat its energy-generating territories as priorities, so that impacts on energy generation and transmission are mitigated, damages are avoided and repairs are adequate.”