Energy efficiency legislation in Brazil towards net zero emissions: projections and propositions for São Paulo state

Currently, countries worldwide are debating their strategies to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called energy efficiency (EE) the “first fuel,” the most cost-effective way to reverse this unprecedented challenge and provide significant benefits to society. In this sense, a proposal for the Brazilian Ten Years Energy Efficiency Plan (PDEf) was launched in 2020, which brings actions and goals for the year 2030 on EE at federal government level, aiming to generate lower energy intensities in the country. Looking to establish a further disaggregation level of the energy conservation policies portfolio, this paper intends to go to the state government level, taking the state of São Paulo as a case study. The aim is to make projections of electricity and fuel savings in relevant sectors for the year 2030 and propose adjustments in public policies. As results, electricity savings of 11,171.46 GWh and fuel savings of 7,486.74 ktoe are expected by 2030. These values represent 5,1% of the electric energy consumption and 11% of the fuel consumption projected for São Paulo in 2030.