JUST ENERGY TRANSITION AND PROTECTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The expansion of offshore renewable energy is increasing the use of marine space and creating new opportunities for the decarbonization of energy systems. Its climate purpose, however, does not create a presumption of environmental sustainability. This article examines the extent to which such expansion in Brazil can be reconciled with the protection of the marine environment and a just energy transition. It adopts a qualitative and legal-dogmatic approach based on an integrated analysis of the Brazilian Constitution, environmental legislation, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and Brazil’s recent legal framework for offshore energy and Marine Spatial Planning, in dialogue with Brazilian and international scholarship. It argues that a just transition in marine space requires the integration of decarbonization, harm prevention, impact and externality assessment, ecosystem protection, participation of affected groups, and the reconciliation of different ocean uses. The article concludes that Brazil’s new legal framework provides relevant instruments for such integration, but the renewable nature of an energy source does not, by itself, ensure the sustainability of the activity. A just transition depends on reducing emissions without lowering the level of legal protection afforded to the marine environment or shifting environmental costs onto marine ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.