Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Energy Plan Contradicts Climate Plan

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 19 2009 (IPS) - Two weeks after taking on the goals of its National Climate Change Plan, Brazil announced its 10-year Energy Expansion Plan, which calls for building more than 80 fossil-fuel-based thermoelectric plants and 71 hydroelectric plants (many in the Amazon) by 2017. The document from the Ministry of Energy and Mines has triggered some strong reactions. According to the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace, it runs counter to new climate agreements because it ignores energy efficiency.

“The contradiction” between the energy and climate plans “is not related only to the thermoelectric plants, but to its overall vision, of increasing energy generation while one-fifth of the energy produced is wasted,” Roberto Smeraldi, director of Friends of the Earth/Brazilian Amazon, told Tierramérica.

The plan would mark a step backwards if “deep corrections” are not implemented, said former environment minister Marina Silva.