Marco regulatório brasileiro das eólicas offshore e transição energética justa: efetividade potencial à luz dos direitos das comunidades tradicionais

Abstract

The expansion of the blue economy has intensified the appropriation of marine space as a new strategic frontier for renewable energy generation, repositioning offshore wind energy at the core of decarbonization policies and global climate governance. In Brazil, this movement gained momentum with the enactment of Law No. 15,097/2025, which established the Regulatory Framework for Offshore Wind Energy in a context marked by strong state protagonism, the attraction of investments, and the anticipation of large-scale projects, particularly in the Northeast region and, more specifically, along the Northern Coast of Rio Grande do Norte. While the international literature provides a robust body of research on the social, environmental, and territorial impacts associated with offshore wind energy, the absence of operational offshore wind farms in Brazil shifts the national debate away from the assessment of consolidated empirical impacts toward a critical analysis of the newly enacted regulatory design and its potential effectiveness. This dissertation aims to critically analyze the normative design of the Brazilian offshore wind regulatory framework, assessing its potential effectiveness in ensuring a Just Energy Transition considering the dimensions of distributive, procedural, and recognition justice, with particular attention to the rights of traditional coastal communities. The research adopts a qualitative approach, grounded in a critical-interpretivist and decolonial paradigm, combining a systematic bibliographic and documentary review of national and international sources, normative analysis of the legal framework and related instruments, and the conduct of semi-structured interviews with traditional communities along the Northern Coast of Rio Grande do Norte. The findings indicate that the Brazilian regulatory framework tends to exhibit potentially asymmetric effectiveness, insofar as it prioritizes investment security and the market viability of offshore wind development, while incorporating mechanisms for social participation, benefit-sharing, and recognition of affected territories and ways of life in a limited, conditional, and largely programmatic manner. It is also observed that, even prior to the physical implementation of offshore wind farms, the announcement of projects already produces significant social and symbolic effects, reactivating memories of conflicts associated with onshore wind projects and intensifying tensions between decarbonization, development, and justice. As a contribution, this study offers an innovative juridical-critical reading of offshore wind regulation in Brazil by integrating normative design analysis with territorial listening, thereby broadening the debate on Just Energy Transition in the Global South and highlighting the limits of law as an instrument of energy governance when dissociated from the social and territorial realities it seeks to regulate.