Energy Networks and Regional Integration in South America.

CARRIZO SILVINA CECILIA; VELUT SÉBASTIEN

Congreso; 2e Colloque international « Fronts et frontières des sciences du territoire »; 2014

In the last decade, South American countries went through robust economic growth based on commodities exports, which implies a growing use of energy from various sources. They also had to face two main challenges: social and spatial inequality, as well as huge distance and low density. The first challenge means that governments must devise public policies in order to give specific energy solutions to vulnerable social groups. The second entails specific problems for land planning and the development of infrastructures. The relations between countries, within the political framework of UNASUR, have put energy in pivotal role to sustain economic growth and build regional integration. This paper shows that these programmes have obtained some results to provide cheap energy to large scale projects, but fail to give adequate answer to another set of social and geopolitical issues.