Brazilian Association to the International Energy Agency Announcement

Ceremony

- Dear Minister Aloysio Nunes

- My friend Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency,
- Dear Ambassadors,
- Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure and an honor to be at the Itamaraty Palace today for this

significant moment in our international energy agenda.
Today, we are taking another step to include Brazil in the context of major
discussions and actions in favor of renewable energies, energy efficiency,
rational use of fossil fuels, energy security and sustainable development.
Brazil and the International Energy Agency have already an important
interaction. I was informed that in 1998 the MME participated in IEA working
groups, but the cooperation intensified from 2006 on. Since then and just to
mention a few, we have had the opportunity to jointly work on a Technological
Roadmap on Hydroelectricity and on the chapter dedicated to Brazil in the
World Energy Outlook - a publication that has been the flagship of the Agency
for 25 years and brings together the latest data, energy policies, analysis and
forecasts for the global energy markets.
On a continuous basis, since 2011, we have also developed activities of mutual
interest through joint Work Programs and, soon after, we will sign the 2018/19
version. MME experts have participated annually in the IEA’s training weeks in
a number of areas, primarily energy efficiency and renewable energy, as one of
the products of our fruitful partnership. The success of this colaboration
corroborated to strengthening relations between Brazil and IEA and brought us
to this ceremony today. I am proud to be the spokesperson for Brazil's
Accession to the Agency as a non-member country.
The Association of Brazil as a non-member country of the Agency comes
propitiously at a time when Brazil has been working to improve its position in the
global energy scenario with unique characteristics of multiplicity of renewable
energy sources in its matrix.
In this sense, in addition to the privileged clean matrix Brazil already has, based
on the hydro source, we must underline that we have reached the seventh
place among the countries with the largest generation of wind energy in the
world. In terms of power expansion, we are in the fifth place with 2.5 GW in
2016. By 2026, the Ten Year Energy Plan forecasts that the Brazilian wind
capacity will reach 25.8 GW, which corresponds to only 12.5% of the total, and
90% of the total wind capacity should be in the northeast region.

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It is important to record here that, 3 days ago, wind energy reached, for the first
time, 50% of the energy generation in the Northeast.
With regard to solar energy, in 2018 Brazil should be among the 15 largest
generators, considering the operation of the 2.6 GW already contracted.
The largest solar irradiation in Brazil is in areas of lower economic development,
where land use and taxes incomes can contribute to local development. The
installation of photovoltaic panels 2 meters height over the ground can create
favorable conditions to the cultivation of vegetables and it is crucial for family
farming.
Today we face the challenge of balancing our huge National Interconnected
Grid with the progressive participation of intermittent sources of energy in the
matrix, such as wind and solar.
However, if the word is predictability, it is worth mentioning MME's commitment
to resume its dialogue with the biofuels sector. Investment incentives can
increase the share of biofuels up to 18% in the energy matrix by 2030. We
strengthened the process of public policies’ formulation, including the
participation of various segments of the society: federal, state and municipal
bodies and entities, representatives of the productive sector, academia and civil
society contributed decisively to the development of a consistent Brazilian
decarbonization strategy for the transport sector matrix - the RenovaBio.
We also worked hard for Brazil to regain its leading role in the oil and natural
gas sector. Last Friday's auctions prove the success of the actions developed in
recent months to recover the Brazilian oil industry and to restore confidence and
investment in our country.
Therefore, today, we have joined forces to reduce 43% of greenhouse gas
emissions - a Brazilian commitment in the Paris Agreement, mitigating the
negative impacts of energy generation and improving energy efficiency actions,
without compromising the country’s development.
In this context, Brazil and the International Energy Agency, that seeks the
vanguard of good practice, reliable energy data, source of studies of the
impacts of public policies, expert in the evaluation and projection of scenarios,
have much to exchange.
Finally, yet relevant, I would like to congratulate all of you on the understanding
that reflects today in the realization of Brazil's association with the International
Energy Agency, as had already been done by China, India, Indonesia, Morocco,
Singapore and Thailand, some of these countries represented here by their
ambassadors.
I thank the contribution of the technicians who worked so that this remarkable
improvement in the Brazil-IEA partnership could happen. I leave my
appreciation to the colleagues of the MME, Cepel, EPE and the IEA. I would
also like to thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the person of Minister
Aloysio Nunes, for his diplomatic work on behalf of this partnership.

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