In the world, especially in developed countries, for different reasons, natural gas occupies a higher percentage space in the energy matrix, compared to Brazil (MME, 2015). This form of energy has a prominent presence in Brazilian urban spaces only in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, serving more than 3.2 million homes, with a prevalence of concentration in the capitals (ABEGÁS, 2020) – in December 2020 they represented 86 % of the entire natural gas market that supplied residential units in the country. The third cycle of urbanism, classified by Ascher (1995; 1998; 2010) as neo-urbanism, has as its principle the existence of a movement that emancipates spatial and territorial limits. Proximity and physical presence became unnecessary for some exchanges and social practices, especially in communication and consumer relations, with individualism contributing to immobility. Principles that converge with the effects of the use of natural gas in Brazilian urban spaces. The great changes that characterize the current urban revolution emphasize this adherence between a new urban model and a new form of energy, as is the case of natural gas in Brazil, decisively affecting many social activities. It can be seen that, in the light of neo-urbanism, natural gas can be considered harmful or “beneficial, assuming a role of promoting inequality or confronting it. The expansion or not of its application has a very significant impact on urban mobility and air and noise quality in Brazilian cities. It seems utopian, as well as from the perspective of the development of other infrastructure networks, and perhaps it is convenient to appear that way in the market logic, but as a premise, universal access to the supply of natural gas would be a socially fairer attitude than the concentration and limitation of its offer as it is currently seen in Brazil.
Mots clés : natural gas|Brasil|François Ascher|neourbanism
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