Water and wind power Brazil’s green growth

Latin America’s largest country is blazing a sustainable energy path, despite some objections

Policymakers in developing countries around the world wrestling with the challenges of meeting surging energy demand, ensuring energy security and keeping a cap on carbon emissions should consider a visit to Brazil. The country has seen energy consumption nearly double over the past 20 years, yet in attempting to satisfy that demand, Brazil has managed to build one of the world’s least carbon-intensive and self-sufficient energy systems. The cornerstone of the low-carbon energy system is hydropower. Brazil gets more than 80% of its electricity from a vast, country-wide network of hydropower facilities, which has helped make the country’s power generation sector one of the greenest on planet.