THE CORPORATE ENERGY TRANSITION AS AN EXPRESSION OF GREEN GRABBING

NOTES FROM BRAZIL

Abstract

In the face of the climate crisis, Brazilian adaptation and mitigation policy has been guided by a corporate-driven energy transition. However, this model proves to be contradictory, as it deepens historically rooted territorial impacts and injustices in the country. This article aims to critically analyze the ongoing energy transition model, demonstrating how it materializes in territories through green grabbing, operating as a mechanism for the reproduction and maintenance of capital accumulation. Based on a methodological approach that combines quantitative and qualitative tools — including data collection and systematization, as well as fieldwork — the study finds that the main frontier for the expansion of renewable energy projects in Brazil is located in the Northeast region. In this context, an asymmetrical distribution of negative impacts can be observed, expressed across multiple territorial dimensions and constituting a scenario of territorial injustice. It is concluded, therefore, that this process exacerbates pre-existing inequalities, undermines traditional ways of life and threatens collective territorial rights.