“Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, where’s our daylight saving time?” wrote one user on X, formerly Twitter, as the summer months bring with them hotter nights and longer days.
Most Brazilians were born and raised putting their clocks forward an hour on the first Sunday of November, and back again on the third Sunday of February, a daylight saving system known as Brazilian Summer Time.
The original aim of the system was to reduce electricity consumption during the summer months, making more use of natural daylight. But it also had a major impact on the population’s lives, becoming a part of popular culture.
Brazil implemented daylight savings on and off since 1931, making it permanent in 1985. But, as one of the first acts of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro in 2019, Brazilian Summer Time was scrapped.
“I’ve always complained about daylight saving time,” he said, citing government studies that indicated there was no pressing need to save electricity, and that the impact of clock-changing on people’s circadian rhythms would affect productivity levels.
Indeed, studies do show that changing levels of sun exposure alters humans’ circadian cycles. The adaptation to such a shift can take around 14 days, and some people never actually manage to adjust.
When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president for his third non-consecutive term last year, there was some expectation that he could bring back Brazilian Summer Time.
Shortly after the election, in November 2022, his official X profile posted a poll that received more than 2.3 million votes. “[This is] a government that consults the population. What do you think about the return of daylight saving time?” The result was a clear victory for “yes,” with 66.2 percent.
But Lula has not brought back Brazilian Summer Time. And the explanations for not doing so are both economic and political.
According to the government, the energy-saving justification for...
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