Lira Luz Benites LazaroUniversity of São Paulo | USP · Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health
Lira Luz Benites Lazaro
Doctor
About
58
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Introduction
Lira Luz Benites Lazaro currently works at the Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo. Develops research on environmental and energy policies, sustainable management, policy analysis, and governance. Her most recent research project is on the governance of water-energy-food nexus with a focus on biofuels.
Additional affiliations
January 2014 - November 2017
Publications
Publications (58)
Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) requires local stakeholders to participate by sharing their comments on CDM activities. This stipulation aims at promoting social equity, a key element of sustainable development. We draw on the stakeholder theory to examine the local stakeholder...
Concerns regarding water scarcity, food security, and land/soil degradation are increasing, and
these issues are far from being independent of bioenergy production. The competing need for land
and water resources in food and bioenergy production have been at the forefront of policy debates.
In this study, we examined policy debates related to land,...
The management of water-energy-food nexus lies at the heart of the nexus approach, addressing the trade-offs and externalities across these sectors while focusing on system efficiency instead of isolated sectoral productivity. This approach posits that there is no possible isolated efficiency and that decision-making based on classic management the...
The production of biofuels is inextricably linked with the water-energy-food-land (WEFL) nexus. Understanding these linkages is necessary to formulate effective policies that can influence positive outcomes and contribute to the realization of long-term economic, environmental, and social goals. The use of biofuels can help achieve the United Natio...
Energy transition requires systematic changes, not only to energy technologies but also to the broader political, social, environmental, and economic assemblages that are built around energy production and consumption. Changes in the energy supply and the shift toward renewable energy resources cannot be comprehensively understood without consideri...
Reducing the dominance of fossil-based electricity generation is a crucial strategy to address climate change. However, drivers impacting sustainable energy transitions, such as the high costs associated with the petroleum industry and other socio-political influences, such as cartels and subsidies, can delay, halt, or even revert decisions favorin...
Policies can play a central role in the energy transition by promoting renewable sources. The successful implementation of sustainable energy and climate policies requires political will and public support. Governments in many countries are taking measures to drive changes in energy systems and incentivize renewable energies. Drawing on the Brazili...
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects must include intended contributions to sustainable development in their scope, in addition to promoting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Previous studies have identified expected co-benefits in CDM projects, nevertheless, they have not focused on solar photovoltaic energy. Although there is...
This book aims to contribute to the transdisciplinary study of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus in cities and to help policy makers adopt a more integrated approach to natural resources management in urban environments to face the challenges and threats of climate change. This approach is based on a multidimensional scientific framework that seeks...
Climate change is expected to affect the most diverse regions of the world in diverse ways, posing additional challenges to managers and populations in the countryside and in the cities. In this chapter, we adopt climate anomaly scenarios considering the variables such as maximum temperature, consecutive days of rain, and number of dry days, to sel...
The urban water-energy-food (WEF) nexus approach in cities represents a pathway for coping with trade-offs in the search for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The scientific literature on the WEF nexus has grown enormously since 2012. Recently, it has become more diversified with the evolution of new topics and expanded scope, dem...
Highlights
• Argentina and Brazil reflect a trend towards an energy transformation rather than a transition.
• Both countries present a modest incidence of solar and wind installed capacity.
• The incidence of energy poverty in Argentina is 17% and 9.9% in Brazil.
• Strengthening energy communities is a core policy challenge in both countries....
Introdução As grandes metrópoles possuem intensas conexões com os fenômenos associados às amplas mudanças ambientais globais em curso, como as mu-danças climáticas. Com efeito, essa conectividade remete tanto a causalida-des e motricidade de transições, como também se relaciona com as diversi-ficadas consequências e impactos a que os moradores de g...
This study explores how the concept and research on the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has evolved over time. The research uncovers the key terms underpinning the phenomenon, maps the interlinkages between WEF nexus topics, and provides an overview of the evolution of the concept of WEF nexus. We analyzed published academic literature from the Scopu...
We present how the city of Salvador in Brazil, has applied the resilience approach to its long-term urban planning agenda to both overcome past sequelae and face new challenges such as the increasing urbanization and climate change. Salvador launched its Resilience Strategy, which placed it at the forefront of cities investing in resilience to face...
RESUMO: Para viabilizar a transição do sistema de energia onde predomina o uso e consumo de energias fósseis para um sistema de baixo carbono, é importante destacar o papel da governança multinível. Nesse interim, a descentralização do planejamento energético (PE) é indispensável para a formulação de políticas públicas coerentes e integradas, neces...
Several cities around the world have been developing specific strategic plans to foster urban resilience. These plans, which are known as urban resilience strategies, do not follow a default format; however, they do follow similar patterns when they are designed by cities within a given collaborative network, such as the Resilient Cities Network (R...
The National Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio) was launched in December 2017 with the aim of supporting the Brazilian Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)'s commitments under the Paris Agreement. This policy includes mechanisms for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), commercialization and predictability of the fuel market, supporting national energy securit...
In this article, we examine the establishment of the Brazilian biofuels policy (RenovaBio). We identify whether there was the participation of stakeholders, and efforts of interest groups (associations, sugar refineries, and fuel distributors) to send technical notes and comments in order to have their perspectives heard and demands met, mainly reg...
The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges for healthcare systems and political leaders across the globe. In this case study of Brazil, we argue that leadership failings at the highest level contributed to Brazil’s relatively high and escalating death rates during 2020. Drawing on an analysis of a large amount of textual documentation drawn from media...
De fato, quando se trata de governança, os formuladores de políticas continuam a abordar e formular políticas setorializadas com pouca consideração pelas interações inter-setoriais. As dimensões materiais e sociais do nexo interagem tanto nos processos e infraestruturas industriais, como nas políticas, práticas cotidianas, relações informais, discu...
Um dos principais pontos do debate nacional, no âmbito da discussão da proposta de Plano Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos, em processo de consulta pública e audiências públicas no Brasil, é a implantação de sistemas de geração de energia a partir da incineração de resíduos urbanos e de combustível derivado de resíduos (CDR), considerando seus impactos...
Debates on the interrelationship, interdependences, synergies, and trade-offs on water–energy–food nexus have underscored the need for new methods to explore and understand the complexity of these relevant issues, particularly methods that are capable of representing the interrelationships between sectors. In this chapter, we discuss the utility of...
Doing business in the climate change context can be challenging today. Businesses are impacting the environment through their production processes, while simultaneously becoming vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. Businesses can potentially facilitate climate change mitigation and adaptation by implementing clean technologies, which in...
A transição energética é um assunto que está ganhando atenção crescente tanto na academia quanto na política. Ela é entendida como englobando mudanças no suprimento nacional de energia ou a descoberta de novos recursos energéticos, e na sua formulação mais recente ressalta uma confluência de assuntos desde a rápida queda de custos em sistemas de en...
A necessidade de enfrentamento dos impactos socioeconômicos e
ambientais da pandemia COVID-19 tem mobilizado a sociedade civil,
empresas e o Estado em diversas áreas, com destaque para os setores econômicos. O setor de energia brasileiro não estaria ausente do rol de
ações. Desde o início do isolamento social, que levou à paralisação do
comércio, i...
Green-blue infrastructure in urban regions guarantees the provision of resources such as water, energy, and food, which are interdependent and fundamental in ensuring human development. In this study, we analyzed the environmental injustice issue relationships of the supply and production of water, energy, and food in the São Paulo Macrometropolis,...
O artigo, a partir do estudo de caso da proposta de implantação da Unidade de Recuperação de Energia da Baixada Santista na cidade de Santos, discute se a incineração de resíduos urbanos pode ser considerada pelo conjunto de atores públicos, priva- dos e do terceiro setor, envolvidos com a gestão de resíduos sólidos como uma rota tecnológica adequa...
A questão central na gestão dos recursos naturais é o reconhecimento das consequências diretas ou indiretas que pode haver dentre setores na tomada de decisão. A abordagem do nexo água-energia-alimentos propõe otimizar a integração de políticas setoriais em prol de benefícios transetoriais na busca de governança integradora e o alcance dos objetivo...
O desenvolvimento de um país, aqui entendido como aquele capaz de
expandir os horizontes de possibilidades nacionais, permitindo a preservação e ampliação da qualidade de condições sociais, econômicas, políticas e ambientais, é altamente dependente do setor de energia. De forma a orientar essa evolução, o planejamento energético se apresentacomo um...
Dentre os 17 Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) lançados em 2015, este capítulo apresenta uma análise crítica sobre os desafios que a Macrometrópole Paulista (MMP) enfrenta na busca para cumprir o ODS 7 que traz como título “Energia Limpa e Acessível - assegurar o acesso confiável, sustentável, moderno e a preço acessível à energia para...
Todo o conteúdo deste periódico, exceto onde está identificado, está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons. Identificação do Sistema Energético da Macrometrópole Paulista: primeiro passo para atuação local em Mudanças Climáticas Resumo: Este artigo analisa a oferta e demanda de energia e investiga as opções de aproveitamento de recursos energ...
In the last decade, the debate on the governance of water, energy, and food (WEF) has intensified, spurring the emergence of the term “nexus governance.” In general, the reduction of trade-offs and construction of synergies between WEF have been placed on the scientific, political, and economic agenda. However, although increasingly used, it is dif...
In the context of climate change, the current challenges are to find convergent solutions that balance both economy and the environment such that emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) are cost-effectively reduced without adversely affecting the global economy. One of the mechanisms established for this purpose is the clean development mechanism (CDM)...
Debates on climate change, energy and food security concerns have underscored the need for new methods and tools to explore and understand the complexity of these relevant issues. In this study, we used unsupervised probabilistic modeling—latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA)—to examine the changes in social policy debates related to ethanol production...
En este artículo se examina la participación de los actores locales (stakeholders) y la contribución al desarrollo sostenible de los proyectos de Mecanismos de Desarrollo Limpio (MDL) en Brasil. Se utilizó la metodología mixta para análisis textual, cualitativo y cuantitativo, en la evaluación de 341 Documentos de Concepción de Proyecto. Los result...
The current debate on corporate social responsibility was triggered by the understanding that companies should be responsible for mitigating the impacts of their activities on the society and the environment. In this paper, drawing on the structural power of business, we examine the rule-setting power in which sugarcane ethanol companies engage, an...
From a business perspective, climate change mitigation offers certain opportunities that drive the market for new business, and presents an opportunity to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In this study, we examine the motivation for companies in Latin America to implement Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, whether CDM encou...
Climate change narratives often evoke scary scenarios. But in business discourses, the climate change narrative often emerges as an opportunity rather than a threat. This paper examines the predominant business storytelling ploys used by Brazil’s sugarcane industry association, UNICA to promote the industry as environmentally and socially responsib...
The climate agreements incorporate the connection between sustainable development and climate change. In particular, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) integrated Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals with promoting sustainable development. The paper aims to assess the contribution of CDM projects to sustainable development in three Lat...
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has incorporated sustainable development as one of their objectives. This objective gives companies an increasing motivation to contribute to sustainable development through their corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, perceived profitability of companies with carbon commodification were negatively associa...
The paper aims to describe the main features of the countries’ positions in the CDM renewable energy projects in Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Peru. The first effort was to evaluate the CDM portfolio concentrating on renewable energy projects. Moreover, a special analysis was in the public policy in order to identify how political-institutional and eco...
A responsabilidade social empresarial (RSE) como parte da gestão dos negócios na América Latina é um tema novo que teve um desenvolvimento crescente nas últimas décadas, impulsionado pela globalização, pelos meios de comunicação e pelas redes sociais. Fatores que demandam, diretamente no comportamento ético das empresas, no respeito aos direitos hu...
A responsabilidade social empresarial (RSE) como parte da gestão dos negócios na América Latina é um tema novo que teve um desenvolvimento crescente nas últimas décadas, impulsionado pela globalização, pelos meios de comunicação e pelas redes sociais. Fatores que demandam, diretamente no comportamento ético das empresas, no respeito aos direitos hu...
Resumo: Nos últimos anos, os desastres naturais tornaram-se mais frequentes e são responsáveis por expressivos danos e perdas de caráter social, econômico e ambiental. Os danos causados por calamidades naturais trazem impactos importantes sobre a estabilidade social e política. Da magnitude desses desastres e da qualidade da reação dos governos mui...
A ideia de sustentabilidade na empresa indica que, para alcançar um bom desempenho econô-mico, as empresas devem adotar uma estratégia que contemple o conceito triple bottom line, segundo o qual, as empresas devem prestar contas de sua performance nas áreas econômica, ambiental e social. O presente trabalho tem por objetivo descrever os benefícios...
Resumo O objetivo de nosso trabalho é descrever o estabelecimento da Autoridade Nacional Designada –AND, fazemos um comparativo destas instituições em três paises da América Latina: Brasil, México e Peru, os critérios e procedimentos utilizados para avaliar a contribuição dos projetos de Mecanismo de Desenvolvimento Limpo-MDL para o desenvolvimento...
A assinatura do Tratado de Livre Comércio com os Estados Unidos da América
tem levado o governo peruano a realizar ações para sua implementação, visando a promoção
comercial dos recursos naturais, que reformulam o sistema de distribuição de terra, da
floresta, dos direitos das comunidades campesinas e dos povos indígenas, o qual tem suscitado
confl...
RESUMO A abordagem central deste artigo baseia-se no mecanismo REDD (Redução de Emissões oriundas de Desmatamento e Degradação) e como pode ser implementado na Amazônia brasileira e peruana visando um mecanismo justo em relação às comunidades indígenas e aos povos da floresta. Explicitamos as legislações dos dois países, definições de eventos inter...
Projects
Projects (5)
Analisar os desafios enfrentados pelas cidades brasileiras para se tornarem mais resilientes e com baixa emissao de carbono
My role in this project relates to a post-doctoral fellowship started in 2018 and at present still on-going. Among the research tasks it entails the co-ordination of an interdisciplinary research group that has varied in number from 12 to 20 researchers whose publications are also attached (most of them) to this project log.
Originally the project, part of a larger project on ''Environmental Governance in the Paulista Macrometropolis' (that is, Metro SP), started with with two objectives:
1) To understand current energy policies regarding the replacement of fossil fuel use with renewable sources as well as the actions undertaken towards greater energy efficiency and planning and the development of new technologies for the energy sector.
2) To assess future prospects for a transition towards a more renewable energy matrix for the region, devising socioeconomic, political and environmental scenarios.
Besides the above-mentioned co-coordination of project associates (doctoral and master students in their majority, plus a few post-doc colleagues and some undergraduate), I am also carrying out two most specific case studies, which I personal run, while nonetheless maintaining a horizontal relationship with the formal post-doc director, Prof. Bermann.
Case study 1: Domesticating Narratives of Energy Governance in Metro SP. This case study directly tackles how governance is shaped from a social science and technology studies (STS) perspective. Here I have worked on and published mostly on how Distributed Energy Resources are "normalized" (viz., disciplined) by regulating agencies and the logics of financial capital.
Case study 2: Living as Energy Poor: Untaming the Everyday Implications of Energy Injustice. The second case study concentrates on the relationship between energy poverty and energy justice, in the communities of Nova Esperança and Alvarenga in Metro SP (the field work just recommenced in October 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic).
To work towards a better understanding of energy justice is something I consider of the uttermost importance, especially when it comes to the analysis of governance outcomes, insofar energy and its governance cannot be considered anymore a sort of closed system (the realm of engineers, technocrats, economists and geopolitics specialists). Energy is assembled as a socio-technical configuration and there is little point, for instance in separating access to energy services form connectivity when we analyse how social dynamics and arrangements are shaped in real life settings.
We aim to study the conflicts and power relations in the water-energy- food nexus related to biofuels, identifying the governance structure, institutional vulnerabilities and the responses of different actors to the events of crisis marked by climate change. We will be used the mixed methods approaches (qualitative - quantitative) with the help of software specialized in documentary and textual research in data mining and statistics used in applied social sciences (Machine Learning algorithms).
