Alok Sharma, President of COP26, and Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento de Albuquerque opened a ceremony to mark the successful conclusion of the UK-Brazil Energy Programme on 29 March. The event highlighted the legacy that BEP will leave and invited experts to discuss the main challenges, priorities and practical solutions to drive the transformation of the energy sector in pursuit of net zero in line with Brazil’s commitments to climate goals or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
In the last two years, BEP has supported the Brazilian government to adopt new technologies in the energy sector, based on experience and best international practice for regulation and policies that increase competitiveness and efficiency in the market. BEP took a variety of approaches to reduce energy consumption and poverty, by focusing on blue and turquoise hydrogen, waste-to-energy, biodiesel, solar photovoltaic, offshore wind, and models of distributed renewable energy generation with smart systems and energy storage.
BEP was implemented by a consortium of organizations led by Adam Smith International (ASI) with the participation of Instituto 17 (i17), Carbon Limiting Technologies (CLT), hubz and Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV).
The United Kingdom’s Chargé d’Affaires in Brazil, Melanie Hopkins, MME’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Planning and Development, Marcello Cabral and the Secretary of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels of the MME, Rafael Bastos joined the President of COP26 and the Brazilian Minister at the ceremony.
During the event, BEP team leaders spoke about the main achievements of the Programme. The panel included Elbia Gannoum, stakeholder engagement lead at BEP, Nick Haslam, head of climate change at ASI, Gilberto Jannuzzi, technical director of BEP, Rosana Santos, policy and regulation lead for electricity, Alessandro Sanches, waste-to-energy and biofuels lead, and Solange David, former policy and regulation lead for electricity.
Elbia Gannoum, moderated a concluding roundtable with key representatives for the debate on the energy transition: Agnes Costa (Head of the Special Advisory on Regulatory Affairs of the MME), Marcello Cabral (Secretary Assistant for Energy Planning and Development at the MME), Rafael Bastos (Secretary for Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels at the MME), Heloisa Borges (Director of Studies on Oil, Gas and Biofuels at the EPE), Alex Garcia de Almeida (Office head at the ANP), Alessandro Cantarino (Advisor to the Board of Directors at ANEEL), Rui Altieri (President of CCEE), and Luiz Ciocchi (President of ONS).
The ceremony, held in the auditorium of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), was broadcast live on MME’s YouTube channel (Part 1, Part 2).
