The economic and financial crisis has highlighted the weaknesses of Western economies but has also highlighted the economic rise of countries once considered "developing": Brazil, Russia, India and China. The economic growth of the BRICs has implied an increase in the energy demand of the four economies, translating - unequivocally - also into an increase in their polluting emissions. This phenomenon has cast doubts on a possible sustainable energy development in the BRICs since, although there are good possibilities for the use of renewable energies, the many obstacles to a future sustainable development greater than today's are undeniable. In the analysis of this issue we start from Brazil which, despite having increased the use of renewable resources, has also increased its national oil production, managing to reach a point of balance between the use of fossil fuels and renewable resources; to get to Russia, where the conversion of the energy system is not successful as it is a country that produces fossil fuels and is completely self-sufficient; to India, where the greatest obstacle to sustainable development of the energy system is represented by the government's concerns of causing damage to populations living below the poverty line; to conclude with China, for which the greatest limit to a wider diffusion of sustainable development can be traced in the scarcity of ad hoc technologies.
Attachments: Thesis Abstract M.Caterina Donatelli.pdf
