Just and Sustainable Energy Futures for the Isolated Communities in the Brazilian Amazon: An Energy Democracy Approach

在世界范围内，能源已成为可持续发展的中心点，因为它代表着任何社会经济系统的关键要素(Guzowski等人，2021年)。确保所有人都能获得清洁、现代和负担得起的能源是能源转型的最大挑战之一，缺乏能源被称为能源贫困。获得优质能源服务的机会不足会产生社会排斥并限制发展，主要是在已经具有强烈不平等特征的国家(Guzowski等人，2021年)。巴西的情况就是如此，在已经因缺乏其他基本服务而遭受痛苦的脆弱社区中，能源贫困依然存在(Bezerra等人，2022年)。巴西的能源贫困在主要由亚马逊森林占据的北部地区更为突出，因为农村地区缺乏公共基础设施，这也与更广泛的地理和经济孤立背景有关(Mazonne，2020)。由于与世隔绝，生活在亚马逊地区的大多数社区都没有连接到国家互联系统。这些社区中的许多都有独立系统的成员。根据EPE(2022A)的数据，该国有212个孤立系统，历史上大部分由柴油发电厂供应(EPE，2022A)，这是一种使用复杂物流的昂贵和污染的方法(da Ponte等人，2021年)。矿业和能源部致力于研究新的解决方案，以在孤立系统中整合更多可再生能源技术(EPE，2022)。尽管做出了这些努力，基于柴油的解决方案仍然占主导地位，即使在最近的项目中也是如此(EPE，2022)。下一次为孤岛系统承包新发电能力的拍卖将于2023年举行(DOU，2022年)，可能会出现鼓励可再生能源项目的新尝试。Mazzone(2020)强调，巴西亚马逊长期和成功的能源过渡政策必须围绕最终用户的需求进行设计，以便根据当地人民的社会文化概况考虑更准确的能源需求预测。由于政策制定者和其他能源行为者的眼睛都转向了这个问题，这是一个关键时刻，可以保证亚马逊与世隔绝的社区未来的能源政策将走上民主道路。民主的能源未来方法与能源民主概念有关，该概念认识到扩大能源政治中不同行为者参与的重要性，旨在将低收入社区、有色人种社区和土著社区等历史上被边缘化的群体纳入辩论(Burke&Stephens，2017)。然后，能源民主要求有关能源未来的重要决定由当地社区和公民做出，而不是由少数强大的公司做出(Burke&Stephens，2017)。在这种背景下，这项研究提案的核心问题是：(1)公平和可持续的能源未来对巴西亚马逊地区与世隔绝的社区意味着什么？(2)可以提出哪些政策和监管工具，以确保巴西亚马逊地区与世隔绝的社区在长期内拥有公正和可持续的能源未来？为了实现这一目标，研究项目的方法包括采访当地公民，以了解社区本身如何认为公正和可持续的能源过渡将有助于回答问题(1)。为了补充这些访谈，并旨在回答问题(2)，从联邦到地方一级的一系列能源参与者和政策制定者也将接受采访，以探索如何实现社区的愿望。因此，预计它将为国家政策制定者提供宝贵的贡献，说明应该采用哪些政策工具，为巴西亚马逊地区与世隔绝的社区提供一个公正和可持续的能源未来？

Worldwide, energy has become a central point of sustainable development as it represents a key element for any socioeconomic system (Guzowski et al., 2021). Guaranteeing access to clean, modern and affordable energy for all people is one of the biggest challenges of the energy transition, and the lack of it is known as energy poverty. Poor access to quality energy services generates social exclusion and limits development, mainly in countries that already have strong inequalities characteristics (Guzowski et al., 2021).This is the case in Brazil, where energy poverty persists in vulnerable communities that already suffer from the lack of other essential services (Bezerra et al., 2022). Energy poverty in Brazil is more prominent in the Northernregion, largely occupied by the Amazon Forest, because of the lack of public infrastructure in the rural areas which is also related to a wider context of geographical and economic isolation (Mazonne, 2020). Because of its isolation, most communities living in the Amazon are not connected to the National Interconnected System. Many of these communities are attended by the Isolated Systems. According to EPE (2022a), there are 212 Isolated Systems in the country which are historically supplied in their majority by diesel power plants (EPE, 2022a), a costly and pollutant approach that uses complex logistics (da Ponte et al., 2021).The Ministry of Mines and Energy is committed in investigating new solutions to aggregate more renewable energy technologies in the Isolated Systems (EPE, 2022). Despite the efforts, diesel-based solutions are still predominant, even in recent projects (EPE, 2022). The next auction for contracting new power capacity to the Isolated Systems will happen in 2023 (DOU, 2022) and new attempts to encourage renewable energy projects might appear.Mazzone (2020) highlights that policies for a long-term and successful energy transition in Brazilian Amazon must be designed around the needs of the final user in order to consider a more accurate projection of energy demand based on local people's sociocultural profile. Since the eyes of policymakers and other energy actors are turned to this issue, this is a crucial moment to guarantee that future energy policies in the isolated communities in the Amazon will then take a democratic path.A democratic energy future approach is related to the energy democracy concept, which recognizes the importance of widening the participation of diverse actors within energy politics by aiming to include to the debate historically marginalised groups, like low-income communities, communities of colour and indigenous communities (Burke & Stephens, 2017). Energy democracy then calls that important decisions regarding energy futures to be made by local communities and citizens instead of a small number of powerful corporations (Burke & Stephens, 2017).In this context, the central questions of this research proposal are: (1) what does a just and sustainable energy future mean to isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon?, and (2) which policy and regulatory instruments could be proposed to ensure a just and sustainable energy future to the isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon in the long term?To achieve this goal, the methodology of the research project involves interviewing local citizens to understand how communities themselves think a just and sustainable energy transition would be for answering question (1). To complement these interviews and aiming to answer question (2), a range of energy actors and policymakers, from federal to local level, will be also interviewed to explore how the communities' wishes could be realised. As an outcome, it is expected to provide valuable contributions to the national policymakers on which policy instruments should be applied to provide a just and sustainable energy future to the isolated communities in the Brazilian Amazon in the long term?