eprintid: 10192897 rev_number: 10 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/19/28/97 datestamp: 2024-05-31 08:50:56 lastmod: 2024-11-14 13:16:19 status_changed: 2024-05-31 08:50:56 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Klingler, Michael creators_name: Ameli, Nadia creators_name: Rickman, Jamie creators_name: Schmidt, Johannes title: Large-scale green grabbing for wind and solar photovoltaic development in Brazil ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C04 divisions: F34 keywords: Energy policy, Political economy of energy note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. abstract: Large-scale wind and solar photovoltaic infrastructures are rapidly expanding in Brazil. These low-carbon technologies can exacerbate land struggles rooted in historical inequities in landownership, lack of regulation and weak governance. Here we trace how green grabbing—that is, the large-scale appropriation and control of (undesignated) public lands, both formally legal and illicit, for the development of wind and solar photovoltaic power—has developed in Brazil from 2000 to 2021. We find that global investors and owners, mainly from Europe, are involved in 78% of wind and 96% of solar photovoltaic parks, occupying 2,148 km2 and 102 km2 of land, respectively. We also show that land privatization is the prevalent land tenure regime for securing land, indicating substantial transformations of prior (undesignated) public and common lands. We conclude that green grabbing is a persistent, critical phenomenon in Brazil, requiring transparency and vigilant monitoring of land claims and tenure modifications. date: 2024-06 date_type: published publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC official_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01346-2 oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2276832 doi: 10.1038/s41893-024-01346-2 lyricists_name: Ameli, Nadia lyricists_id: NAMEL06 actors_name: Ameli, Nadia actors_id: NAMEL06 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Nature Sustainability volume: 7 pagerange: 747-757 issn: 2398-9629 citation: Klingler, Michael; Ameli, Nadia; Rickman, Jamie; Schmidt, Johannes; (2024) Large-scale green grabbing for wind and solar photovoltaic development in Brazil. Nature Sustainability , 7 pp. 747-757. 10.1038/s41893-024-01346-2 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01346-2>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10192897/1/Green-grabbing-BRA_accepted-manuscriptf_NATSUSTAIN-23083074C_2024-04-08.pdf