Energy Transition in Latin America: Historic Perspective and Challenges in Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Indeed, the dependent insertion of Latin America in the current phase of capitalism and material efforts to mitigate climate change are two vectors that should be reconsidered in a related manner. Global climate governance has agreed to place responsibility for environmental care on the principle of common but differenti- ated responsibilities according to respective capabilities, although not uniformly among its members. As Hickel (2020) demonstrated, the Global South (Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) is responsible for only 8% of the climate breakdown and presents them as climate creditors vis-à-vis high-income countries. In Latin America, this position does not exempt it from making efforts to face the necessary changes that imply a long-term reduction of emissions toward increasingly lower carbon-intensity econ- omies. However, it does allow us to put into his- torical perspective the financial efforts that the different countries must make to take measures to adapt to the negative consequences of climate change and, at the same time, to advance con- crete actions to comply with its mitigation.Hence, the energy trilemma can be a difficult but necessary objective that regional govern- ments face to ensure energy supply, provide uni- versal access to it, and promote environmental protection. Latin American countries, given their development agendas, must reconcile this energy trilemma, the need to grow, and provide the pop- ulationwithatleasttheminimumenergyneeded to reduce CO2 emissions. Above all, they must resolve the tension of guaranteeing energy secu- rity and advancing the energy transition to reduce the negative effects of the climate crisis. Thus, energy transitions in Latin America must incorporate energy trilemma analysis into the more general framework of its specific prob- lems, such as low long-term economic growth, high participation of raw materials in its export structure and the sacrifice zones that are orga- nized around these activities, high rates of infor- mality in market labor that imply low salaries and a social structure marked by inequality in the distribution of income and access to public goods.Therefore, given the limitations of access to international financing as well as in the develop- ment of transition technologies, which reproduce the logic of exporting raw materials, importing technology and manufactures with high added value (e.g., from wind turbines, solar panels, green hydrogen, electro-mobility, and lithium batteries to the development of smart grids and the digitization of electrical systems based on the use of microprocessors, artificial intelligence, and the knowledge economy as a whole), it is necessary for Latin American countries to re-link the energy transition processes with the dynam- ics of the sustainable development model, its environmental and climatic impacts, and the results in the reduction of social inequalities. Consequently, it makes sense to insert this analy- sis into the discussion of the framework of the SDGs, since it is essential to understand the links between energy, the economy, the environment, and society in depth.In this book, we aim to examine whether the energy transition actions and policies imple- mented in Latin American countries comprehensively promote sustainable development, taking into consideration not only the difficult social relations proposed under the energy tri- lemma, but also the difficulties and particulari- ties of the region. The book is divided into four parts: Part I – Energy, Climate Change, and Sustainable Model: The Energy Matrix and National Decarbonization Plans – addresses the changes in energy mix in Latin America, the increasing participation of renewable sources in electricity generation, and the implicit geopo- litical implications in terms of technology, pro- duction, and the actors involved. In this sense, it reviews China’s diffusion of the renewable energy sector and its implications for the sus- tainable development model. Part II – Oil and Gas Dilemmas: Income’s Dependence and Obstacles to Energy Transitions – presents the dilemmas faced by Latin American countries that depend on oil revenues to face energy tran- sitions in the twenty-first century. The cases of Mexico, Venezuela, and Ecuador are discussed, as are country case studies on oil and gas extraction development, such as Brazil’s Pre- Salt and Argentina’s Vaca Muerta. Part III – Energy Transitions and Renewable Energies: Production, Technology, and Costs as Limits and Opportunities – describes the specificity of policies for the dissemination and expansion of renewable energies in different countries in the region, such as Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Colombia. Public policies to promote transi- tions, the product mix and national industry involved in renewable energy projects, and the development of local technology, costs, prices, and financing are examined. Finally, policies to promote EVs as an important link to the transi- tion are studied. Part IV – Energy Services: Access, Energy Poverty, Decentralization, and Democratization – addresses the problems of poverty and energy inequalities in Central America and Brazil, as well as the regulation and growth of distributed energy and prosumers as possible experiences of democratization in the generation and access to energy in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Nicaragua.