Publication: Brazil Low-carbon Country Case Study
Loading...
Date
2010
ISSN
Published
2010
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This study was undertaken by the World Bank in its initiative to support Brazil's integrated effort towards reducing national and global emissions of greenhouse gases while promoting long term development. The study builds on the best available knowledge and to this effect the study team undertook a broad consultative process and surveyed the copious literature available to identify the need for incremental efforts and centers of excellences. The overall aim of this study was to support Brazil's efforts to identify opportunities to reduce its emissions in ways that foster economic development. The primary objective was to provide the Brazilian government the technical inputs needed to assess the potential and conditions for low-carbon development in key emitting sectors. The Brazil low carbon study aims to support Brazil's continued efforts to foster development while reducing GHG emissions. The World Bank Group has always been committed to supporting growth in developing countries, and in October 2008, it adopted a Strategic Framework on Climate Change and Development (SFCCD) to integrate climate change into the development agenda without compromising growth and poverty reduction efforts. Within the context of the SFCCD, the World Bank has undertaken a series of initiatives to support climate change mitigation within country-led development processes. One of these initiatives has been to coordinate several low-carbon growth studies through close interactions with its longstanding partners. This study is the result of that initiative. In order to build upon the best available knowledge, the study process emphasized a consultative, iterative approach that involved extensive participation by Brazilian experts and government representatives.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“de Gouvello, Christophe. 2010. Brazil Low-carbon Country Case Study. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19286 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Turning the Right Corner : Ensuring Development through a Low-Carbon Transport Sector(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-05-29)This report 'Turning the right corner - ensuring development through a low carbon transport sector' emphasizes that developing countries need to transition to a low carbon transport sector now to avoid locking themselves into an unsustainable and costly future. Furthermore, it argues that this transition can be affordable if countries combine policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with broader sector reforms aimed at reducing local air pollution, road safety risks, and congestion. This report looks at relationships between mobility, low carbon transport and development, drawing attention to the inertia in transport infrastructure. It complements the analysis by reviewing how climate change is likely to affect operations and infrastructure, cost-effective measures for minimizing negative effects, and policies and decision frameworks. It further highlights current and projected research findings and examples from developing countries. And it concludes that new technology is not enough, and that urgent action is needed before economies become locked into high-carbon growth. It discusses how to reconcile development with the need to curb emissions, looking at three sets of instruments and their limitations: new technologies and alternative fuels, supply-side measures, and demand-side policies. This report also looks at both available funding, such as carbon financing and international assistance, and at ways to generate new resources, considering that accounting for negative externalities dramatically alters the economics of transport investment.Publication Brazil Low Carbon Country Case Study(Washington, DC, 2010-06)Brazil low carbon country case study was two years in the making based on a study by the World Bank assisted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). It supports Brazil's integrated effort towards reducing national and global-emissions GHG while promoting long-term development. It builds on the best available knowledge and is underpinned by a broad consultative process and survey of available literature. The study was coordinated by Christophe de Gouvello, a Senior Energy Specialist in the Sustainable Development Department of the Latin American and the Caribbean Region. The study's scope was discussed with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Environment and Science and Technology, as well as representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Planning Agriculture, Transport, Mines and Energy, Development, Industry and trade. More than 15 technical reports and 4 synthesis reports have been commissioned in the course of this work. For a quick overview of priority issues, analysis is presented using reader-friendly charts, graphs, and annotations organized in chapters according to the four key emission sectors, land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF), including deforestation; energy production and use, particularly electricity, oil and gas and bio-fuels; transport systems; and solid and liquid urban waste.Publication Low-Carbon Development for Mexico(World Bank, 2010)One of the most compelling reasons for pursuing low-carbon development is that the potential impacts of climate change are predicted to be severe, for both industrial and developing countries, and that reducing greenhouse gas emissions can reduce the risk of the most catastrophic impacts. The challenge of reducing emissions is sobering: leading scientific models indicate that limiting the rise in global mean temperatures to less than two degree Celsius will require that global greenhouse gas emissions peak within the next 10-15 years and then fall by 2050 to levels about 50 percent lower than in 1990. Although many countries recognize the need to curtail carbon emissions, there is considerable uncertainty about how much this will cost in individual countries, what measures can be undertaken in both the short and longer term, and how cost-effective specific interventions are in reducing emissions. This study analyzes a range of energy efficiency options available in Mexico, including supply-side efficiency improvements in the electric power and oil and gas industries, and demand-side electricity efficiency measures addressing high-growth energy-consuming activities, such as air conditioning and refrigeration. It also evaluates a range of renewable energy options that make use of the country's vast wind, solar, biomass, hydro, and geothermal resources.Publication Mexico - Low-Carbon Development : Main Report(World Bank, 2009-01-01)This study analyzes a range of energy efficiency options available in Mexico, including supply-side efficiency improvements in the electric power and oil and gas industries and demand-side electricity efficiency measures to limit high-growth energy-consuming activities, such as air conditioning and refrigeration. It also evaluates a range of renewable energy options that make use of the country's vast wind, solar, biomass, hydro, and geothermal resources. But low-carbon (CO2) development is not only about energy production and consumption. In Mexico one of the most important sources of greenhouse gas emissions continues to be emissions from deforestation. The rate of deforestation has fallen steadily in Mexico over the past decades. Expanded programs for forest management, wildlife conservation, and efforts to increase the stock of forests can provide needed employment in rural areas and help make Mexican forests net absorbers of CO2 in the coming years. A fundamental question often asked about low-cost mitigation options is why they are not already being undertaken. As the study shows, the availability of commercial technology and even low financial costs is often not enough to overcome barriers related to institutional and knowledge gaps, regulatory and legal constraints, or societal norms. Inability to surmount these 'transactions costs' is typically at the root of the problem of why supposedly low-cost actions are not undertaken. To partially overcome this dilemma, one of the explicit criteria used in this study for identifying low-carbon measures was that they had already been implemented on some scale in Mexico or in a similar economy outside of Mexico. In order to mainstream low-carbon development, a package of new stimuli will be needed, including public and consumer education and training, public demonstrations, standards and regulations, and financial incentives.Publication Green Cities : Cities and Climate Change in Brazil(Washington, DC, 2011-05-01)Urban sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Brazilian cities are growing. At the national level, the dominance of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in Brazil masks the fact that emissions from other sectors, like Energy, Transport and Waste, are growing quite rapidly in cities. Compared to other cities around the world, Brazilian cities have low per capita GHG emissions because of the high level of renewable energy production; but as Brazilian cities continue to grow, the pressure towards higher emissions will persist. The majority of emissions from Energy in Brazil result from the use of fossil fuels and electric power by industry. Industrial processes using fossil fuels will continue to be the largest contributor to emissions growth over the long-term, but electricity generation will produce the highest emissions increase in the period up to 2030. For the past three decades, the trend has been for industries to move away from city centers to peripheral locations that are cheaper and have easier access to distribution networks. However, all the GHG emissions inventories completed to date by Brazilian cities are limited to municipal boundaries, making it difficult to assess the role of industrial emissions at the metropolitan level. One clear trend within city boundaries is that residential consumption of electricity is increasing. As households become wealthier, the size of housing units tend to get larger and the number of domestic appliances increase and residential consumption of electricity is expected to grow drastically in the next two decades.Transport emissions are rapidly growing, especially in urban areas. Fossil fuel based emissions in Brazil are low compared to other countries due to the prominence of renewable-energy sources for electricity and fuels. In fact, ethanol substitutes for two-fifths of gasoline fuel. However, transport-sector emissions are rapidly growing due to increased motorization and congestion. This is coupled with a tendency for smaller agglomerations to grow in a sprawling manner, which is directly impacting the growth of GHG emissions, since the amount of vehicle travel is linked to urban form, i.e. the location of housing, jobs, commerce and entertainment.A distinguishing characteristic of Brazilian cities is the high percentage of emissions from waste. The waste sector constitutes about 4 percent of GHG emissions on average in cities.1 A key driver of waste emissions is the amount of waste produced and collected. In Brazil the amount of waste collected has increased by about 4 percent per year since 1970. The amount of solid waste collected in urban areas is expected to continue increasing in the next two decades due to increased generation of waste and improvements in the collection system. This will likely result in an even higher share of GHG emissions for the overall sector.Climate change impacts are widespread. Climate impacts from global warming in major Brazilian cities have been identified and include flooding from intense storms, increased temperatures, and droughts. Sea level rise is also identified as a concern for Brazil because 25 percent of Brazil s population lives in coastal cities. Brazilian cities are taking action against climate change. In response to concerns about global climate change, Brazilian cities have been world leaders in defining GHG emissions reduction targets and adopted local climate change laws. Some cities have completed GHG inventories, established reduction targets, and taken measures to mitigate emissions.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication A Cost Effective Solution to Reduce Disaster Losses in Developing Countries : Hydro-Meteorological Services, Early Warning, and Evacuation(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-05)In Europe, it can be estimated that hydro-meteorological information and early warning systems save several hundreds of lives per year, avoid between 460 million and 2.7 billion Euros of disaster asset losses per year, and produce between 3.4 and 34 billion of additional benefits per year through the optimization of economic production in weather-sensitive sectors (agriculture, energy, etc.). The potential for similar benefits in the developing world is not only proportional to population, but also to increased hazard risk due to climate and geography, as well as increased exposure to weather due to the state of infrastructure. This analysis estimates that the potential benefits from upgrading to developed-country standards the hydro-meteorological information production and early warning capacity in all developing countries include: (i) between 300 million and 2 billion USD per year of avoided asset losses due to natural disasters; (ii) an average of 23,000 saved lives per year, which is valued between 700 million and 3.5 billion USD per year using the Copenhagen Consensus guidelines; and (iii) between 3 and 30 billion USD per year of additional economic benefits. The total benefits would reach between 4 and 36 billion USD per year. Because some of the most expensive components of early warning systems have already been built (e.g., earth observation satellites, global weather forecasts), these investments are relatively modest, estimated here around 1 billion US per year, reaching benefit-cost ratios between 4 and 36.Publication Causes of Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)The worldwide concern with deforestation of Brazilian Amazonia is motivated not only by the irreversible loss of this natural wealth, but also by the perception that it is a destructive process in which the social and economic gains are smaller than the environmental losses. This perception also underlies the diagnosis, formulation and evaluation of public policies proposed by government and non-governmental organizations working in the region, including the World Bank. The present work suggests that a fuller understanding is necessary with regard to the motivations and identity of the agents responsible for deforestation, the evaluation of the social and economic benefits from the process and the resulting implications of public policies for the region. The objective of the report is to show that, in contrast to the 1970s and 1980s when occupation of Brazilian Amazonia was largely induced by government policies and subsidies, recent deforestation in significant parts of the region is basically caused by medium- and large-scale cattle ranching. Following a private rationale, the dynamics of the occupation process gradually became autonomous, as is suggested by the significant increase in deforestation in the 1990s despite the substantial reduction of subsidies and incentives by government. Among the causes of the transformation are technological and managerial changes and the adaptation of cattle ranching to the geo-ecological conditions of eastern Amazonia which allowed for productivity gains and cost reductions. The fact that cattle ranching is viable from the private perspective does not mean that the activity is socially desirable or environmentally sustainable. Private gain needs to be contrasted with the environmental (social) costs associated with cattle ranching and deforestation. From the social perspective, it is legitimate to argue that the private benefits from large-scale cattle ranching are largely exclusive, having contributed little to alleviate social and economic inequalities. The study notes, however, that decreases in the price of beef in national markets and increases in exports caused by the expansion of cattle ranching in Eastern Amazonia may imply social benefits that go beyond sectoral and regional boundaries.Publication Looking Beyond the Horizon(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06)The story of how the PVH Corp. (referred to throughout this document as PVH) came to leada group of its top suppliers to build factories and a fabric mill in Ethiopia’s Hawassa IndustrialPark (HIP) is the study of a strong collaboration between a private company looking to optimizeits business model and a government aiming to transform its economy through global strategic repositioning. The success of this story hinges upon the intersection of their goals and a shared vision of development that includes a strong commitment to social and environmental goals.PVH was motivated to invest in Ethiopia to respond to shifts in the global apparel sector, its growing desire to retool its business model and to address its concerns about compliance with social and environmental standards in its traditional sourcing locations. PVH had decided to rethink its business model and to look beyond the horizon towards a new region in which tolocate its manufacturing base. To have better oversight and enforcement, PVH moved to adopta fully integrated vertical supply chain, including direct investment in one of the manufacturingfacilities.Key to Ethiopia’s success in attracting this important investor was the government’s ability and willingness to strategically evaluate its foreign direct investment (FDI) needs and strategy and to take steps to evolve into an attractive location for higher value-added export-oriented investment.This case study explains a private investor’s site selection process. It assesses the elements PVH prioritized when deciding to commit to Ethiopia, and specifically to HIP. The case study further assesses the government of Ethiopia’s strategy, level of readiness, interest, and commitment, and sets out some key challenges that lie ahead for this partnership. The case study is structured in ten sections. Section second offers a brief background on the textile and apparel industry, including an explanation of its value chain. It provides a brief corporate profile of PVH and its current global footprint and business model. Section third describes the site selection process: PVH´s initial explorations in Africa, its consideration of several African countries, and its initial conversations and negotiations with Ethiopian authorities. Section fourth discusses the Ethiopian government’s strategy to attract and expand export-oriented investments, including efforts to bolster the country’s competitiveness. This section attempts to offer some explanation why Ethiopia was the right fit at the right time and its level of readiness to land such an investment. It provides a brief profile of PVH’s Africa point of entry, the HIP. Section sixth covers the challenges that lie ahead for this-project---potential setbacks that will affect not only the consolidation and growth of the textiles and apparel industry in Ethiopia, but also the government’s vision of becoming the “manufacturing powerhouse of Africa.” Section eighth concludes with some key lessons from PVH’s decision to invest in Ethiopia. Such lessons may be relevant to countries or regions interested inattracting FDI and may be of particular interest to other African countries in their quest to attract major investments in the textile and apparel sector.Publication Mental Health Patterns and Consequences : Results from Survey Data in Five Developing Countries(World Bank, 2009-02-28)The social and economic consequences of poor mental health in the developing world are presumed to be significant, yet remain underresearched. This study uses data from nationally representative surveys in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, and Mexico and from special surveys in India and Tonga to show similar patterns of association between mental health and socioeconomic characteristics. Individuals who are older, female, widowed, and report poor physical health are more likely to report worse mental health. Individuals living with others with poor mental health are also significantly more likely to report worse mental health themselves. In contrast, there is little observed relation between mental health and consumption poverty or education, two common measures of socioeconomic status. Indeed, the results here suggest instead that economic and multidimensional shocks, such as illness or crisis, can have a greater impact on mental health than poverty. This may have important implications for social protection policy. Also significant, the associations between poor mental health and lower labor force participation (especially for women) and more frequent visits to health centers suggest that poor mental health can have economic consequences for households and the health system. Mental health modules could usefully be added to multipurpose household surveys in developing countries. Finally, measures of mental health appear distinct from general subjective measures of welfare such as happiness.Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.