The US and Brazil have sealed a new partnership to advance the energy transition, despite looming uncertainty over the future of US climate policies under the incoming Donald Trump administration.
The partnership was announced following a meeting today between US President Joe Biden and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. Energy transition was one of Brazil's three goals for its G20 presidency, which it handed over to South Africa today.
The two countries have agreed to focus on three pillars, the US embassy in Brazil said, as they pursue the dual objective of fostering economic growth and job creation while meeting climate targets like emissions reduction and keeping average global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C.
These pillars are the acceleration and expansion of clean energy production and deployment, the development of the clean energy supply chain and green industrialization.
The partnership intends to mobilize financing from public, private and multilateral development institutions to pursue the decarbonization of the power, transportation, industrial and manufacturing sectors in both countries.
This joint effort between the US and Brazil is aligned with their domestic policies, the embassy noted, notably Brazil's new industrial policy and the US' bipartisan infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
A commitment to fighting climate change and developing the green economy is a key aspect of Lula and Biden's shared agenda. But both this cooperation and the future of Biden-era clean energy incentives are in question following Trump's victory in the US election. Trump has tapped oil executive and energy transition critic Chris Wright to lead the US Department of Energy (DOE).
