‘Transition to a low carbon economy brings opportunities’

The transformation towards a low carbon economy is an inescapable agenda, according to Sergio Andrade, executive director of the Public Agenda, which, together with the ODS Strategy, is holding the third edition of the ODS Festival, on the 25th and 26th of May.

Achieving sustainable development by 2030 presupposes adjustments in the economies of countries around the world in order to ensure the end of poverty, protection of the environment and climate, peace and prosperity, according to the objectives defined by the United Nations.

This year’s ODS Festival aims to analyze national and international initiatives, point out challenges, connect sectors, people and initiatives and create solutions to social and economic obstacles to a just transition.

In an interview with SheetAndrade details ways that can recover the economy without increasing the abyss of social inequality in Brazil and in the world.

In the third edition of the ODS Festival, five Sustainable Development Goals were highlighted. In previous editions, the event contemplated only one. What has changed?

We have a challenge that is multiple. Last year, we brought you SDG 8 [trabalho decente e crescimento econômico] to guide the economic recovery in the country. At that time, the unemployment agenda was heavily discussed.

We continue with the economic theme, which is the great Brazilian agenda. But how can we face up to this difficult moment in the country, on a topic that is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Countries that have found paths to economic recovery have insisted on the ecological transition and digital economy as an opportunity for recovery. So, we bring an agenda that talks about innovation, energy, the challenges of inequality and we keep talking about jobs and income.

What is considered a just transition?

It is about preparing for a future in which the economy needs to change and also preparing the work, workers, income, tax and fiscal systems of the countries, so that this gradual transformation can take place.

It’s bringing this agenda to Brazil because it interests us as an opportunity for recovery for the economy, with a strand of opportunities that we see in the United States, Europe and even China.

In other words, there is no ideology that governs this transformation of the economy, we perceive this in all models of society and that is why we are interested in debating this in the country.

In just transition, how do you balance the winners and losers?

​ The just transition appears as a legal instrument in the preamble of the Paris Agreement, which establishes climate commitments and concerns about winners and losers of the energy transition.

The impacted sectors, such as coal, steel, the electricity sector, extensive livestock, need preparation, because there are entire regions that could suffer a lot from more drastic carbon restriction measures.

What opportunities might arise from this transition?

A potential to generate more than 200 million jobs, and therefore, means preparing the economy, society, workers for this future with strategies for compensation and work retraining and reformulation of tax systems.

Are there examples of benefits in these changes for the worker?

Yes. We have entire regions in Europe that base their economy on coal. In these locations, the workforce is not flexible enough for you to adapt overnight to a significant transformation of the economy. In other words, there would be great losses, impoverishment.

What is projected in the low carbon economy is the intensive use of technology, which requires preparation of active workers and young people. What needs a strategy of reinsertion and productive inclusion.

In some cases, professions tend to disappear, so there are preventive and compensatory measures and there are ways to prepare work for other occupations.

Would these measures be given by the public authorities and companies?

Also by companies. What is most obvious is, in fact, the public power, which has this commitment to exit. But we have initiatives, for example, like Unilever in Europe, where the debate is more institutionalized, in Germany, and in Spain, which maintains a national just transition institute to coordinate policies.

Each country has chosen a strategy, a governance for this, because it also means coordinating funds, which will be directed towards this compensation, towards this reconversion of some industries.

For example, a steel mill can be reconverted. In the case of a more carbon-intensive energy matrix, gas can be considered a transition fuel. We can debate whether it is the best long-term alternative but it is said to be transition fuel.

How does Brazil insert itself in this discussion?

We’re behind. But I would draw attention to Minas Gerais, which has been guiding this challenge for a long time. There is concern about the future of the post mining state, which is a finite activity.

So it’s important to think long term. How the transformation and also the intensive use of carbon will be. This type of agenda is present in mining, in the steel industry, in the transport sector.

What does just transition in agriculture mean?

The European Union has adopted a program that intends to encourage the use of healthier products on the citizen’s table, less fertilizers in the whole block.

The idea is to encourage local consumption, produce healthier agri-food systems. This also matters for our livestock. What are the technological innovations that already exist and that can be incorporated into animal nutrition, that will reduce methane emissions, that will encourage a type of local consumption, such as urban agriculture?

It is the challenge of the food industries. Then I mention the case of PepsiCo, which has adopted an aggressive decarbonization policy in its value chain. These are initiatives that will be present at the festival.

Is there a predisposition of agribusiness in Brazil to assume this change?

We need to be pedagogical to avoid an attitude that blocks this dialogue with agribusiness. Therefore, we will have speakers like Marcelo Britto, who is an important leader and presided over Abag – Brazilian Agribusiness Association.

He will present the good examples that are already taking place in Brazil and also this agenda of large buyers, with decisions that are not just of governments, but of citizens, asking for the mapping of meat consumption chains, for example.

The newest thing comes from China, in the purchase of animal protein, which has shown concern about the origin of soy. We want to show what the just transition brings to agriculture, agribusiness, the possibility of overcoming sanitary barriers.

We can reach other markets by adopting policies of attention to the development of the territory.

Does it also mean the need for a change in pesticide use policies?

Yes No doubt. We are talking about a strategy of competitiveness, of money. So it’s important to be aware of that. It is necessary to produce in a more sustainable way.

Transition means a process in which there are losers and winners. The basis of the just transition is social dialogue, because it is part of the negotiation strategies to prepare for these transformations.

It’s an inevitable process, right?

These schedules are here to stay.

In the mining sector, is this change also happening? Did the tragedies in Brazil impact companies?

In mining, despite its conflictive nature, there is a mature debate, with more sustainable practices, with a new protocol that came after Brumadinho, with the concern of stakeholders.

In agribusiness the debate is much more incipient. For example, mining taxes stay in the territory, with a greater possibility of investing in public services. The main tax generated by agricultural products is not located in the municipality.

The local development strategy is very different in agribusiness. But all these sectors, given their importance in the Brazilian economy, are faced with the reality that society expects a change in culture, with investments more concerned with short-term returns and a sustainable vision in terms of employment, balance and sustainability.

What result do you hope to achieve in the two days of debates and meetings to discuss issues so sensitive?

That we have ways to recover the Brazilian economy in an inclusive way. It doesn’t just mean prioritizing an agenda, like the tax reform that many point to as the engine of our recovery. It doesn’t just mean opening up more to private investment.

It’s a sum of it all. What international experience shows us is that the economic recovery, the transition to a low carbon economy brings opportunities, and that this combines access to public services, including, as a vector of development.

This, combined with recovery measures such as encouraging small and medium-sized producers, such as looking at the Brazilian countryside and its opportunities, means a path for Brazil to rethink its place in the world.

It’s an inescapable agenda: either we discuss it, or we’ll be out, at least from the world we understand as our peers, the Western world.