Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Brazilian Energy Sector

This work investigates the Brazilian energy sector between 2018 and 2021 from the perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has affected the energy sector by widely changing consumption and behaviour patterns. This study is based on four layers of analysis: energy consumption, social isolation, greenhouse gas emissions, and household income data. This work correlates with how the pandemic affected the Brazilian energy scenario and whether it is possible to discuss consumption reduction and energy justice in the face of these factors. Thus, understanding the Brazilian context as a whole is sought in light of questions about reducing consumption, climate perspectives and decision-makers’ position and influence on the Brazilian energy sector. The results show a clear decrease in consumption for most fuels and sectors investigated. However, part of this decrease seems to be only pent-up demand and has unplanned, unsustainable origins, not correlated with the concept of energy justice. The observations of this study also address the perspective of climate resilience, given the challenges of dealing with the new paradigms of the global energy sector.