COP26, the water crisis, and energy from the Northeast

Twenty years after the 2001 "Blackout," Brazil finds itself facing an energy crisis once again. Driven by political, economic, and environmental factors, the crisis has been exacerbated by the country's heavy reliance on hydroelectric power. As rainfall levels have remained below historical averages in recent years, particularly in the country's south-central region, this dependence on hydropower has triggered a systemic crisis, with the resulting electricity shortages impacting both industry and consumer prices.

However, when we look at the Brazilian Northeast, we see that the region has already made remarkable progress in adopting other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. According to the Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABEEólica), wind power accounted for 94.4% of all energy consumed in the Northeast subsystem in the first half of 2021. This region also hosts 80% of the country's wind farms, which helped Brazil climb from 15th to 7th place in the global wind energy production rankings, with an average capacity factor of 40.6% (2020) compared to the global average of 34%.

As for solar energy, the Northeast has been breaking a series of records in an industry that is also bucking the trend of the water crisis. According to the Brazilian Solar Photovoltaic Energy Association (Absolar), the region has over 2.4 GW of photovoltaic plants in operation, yet solar energy still accounts for only 2% of Brazil's energy matrix. The goal is to increase this to 2.7% by the end of 2021, with expectations that solar energy will represent 4% of the Brazilian energy matrix by 2025, while wind power reaches 13% and hydropower drops to 59%. In other words, while we are experiencing a water crisis that impacts energy production, a greater focus on other renewable sources is providing some breathing room to manage energy demand.

Beyond their economic and technological impacts, data like these also reflect the significant cultural and artistic moment we are experiencing in the country. Within Brazilian science fiction, the arrival of the so-called "fourth wave" of writers aims to subvert clichés and stereotypes previously cultivated in both mainstream and niche circles. The starting gun has fired for a moment of abandoning the "Vira-Lata" (underdog) complex diagnosed by Nelson Rodrigues.

In the case ofSertãopunk, a literary movement proposed by writers Alan de Sá, Alec Silva, and G.G. Diniz, invites us to think about the Northeast region in its plurality and potential, moving beyond the tropes frequently used in mass-market productions—namely, the persistent references to the "cangaço" (banditry), drought, and poverty. The movement emerged shortly after the development of the "Cyberagreste" illustration series by Vitor Wiedergrün.

With the release of the film *Bacurau* in 2019, Brazilian pop culture received an initial push to rethink issues like cultural identity, technology, and colonialism through the Hollywood-style language adopted by the production. In the case of Sertãopunk, the movement encourages the writing of new stories about the Northeast and its people, including an understanding of their migration patterns across the country and their influence in other regions.

As suggested by Ivan Carlos Regina in his "Anthropophagic Manifesto of Brazilian Science Fiction," the genre has been seeking new ways to express a futuristic Brazilian vision that avoids the simple absorption of foreign tropes, instead becoming a true process of digesting these references. While the social sciences discuss issues like recognition politics, decolonization, and decoloniality in the 21st century, art seeks to craft a complex tapestry that can represent the multiplicity of a country of continental dimensions.

It is for this reason that Brazil has also gained prominence in the Solarpunk and Afrofuturism artistic movements and genres. In the late 2010s, a combination of political and cultural events led to the birth of a new wave of artists who are subverting the visions of the future dictated by Hollywood. 

With the internet, these discussions can be amplified beyond geographical borders, turning them into global topics enriched by a diversity of viewpoints and experiences. One of the provocations made in this regard is the rediscovery of a sense of belonging and origin, as proposed by French artist and activist Makan Fofana, creator of the project Banlieue du Turfu: why must the future only happen outside the periphery and beyond the Global South? Why do I need to leave my place of origin to be able to prosper and live the future?

The fact that the Northeast is fostering an energy and ecological revolution in Brazil comes, therefore, alongside the urgency of reevaluating the visions of the future we have held until now, as well as the narratives that were suppressed in the face of such beliefs. Nevertheless, having Alice Pataxó represent Brazil at this year's COP26 is a reason to celebrate and recognize that we are moving toward this new cultural and political moment in Brazil.

Since she was 15, the indigenous influencer has used social media to speak about the preservation of her people's culture, which is divided into villages in the south of Bahia and the north of Minas Gerais. Before embarking for Scotland, Alice tweeted: "The forest has no owner, but it has a guardian. That is why we are here, to defend these territories, to defend life."

At this edition of COP26, Alice faced the major challenge of representing a country that, in recent years, has seen its standing in the fight against climate change downgraded, in addition to experiencing a period of intense conflict over indigenous lands. Alongside other young leaders like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, Alice stated in interview that the opportunity to participate in COP26 gave her new encouragement and confidence that her people, after all, are not alone in this struggle, which is much larger and more powerful than adversity would have us believe.