Just energy transitions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dilemmas on the road to sustainable development

ESTEBAN SERRANI

Jornada; ACADEMIC DIALOGUE BETWEEN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN AND CHINA: CLIMATE CHANGE AND GREEN DEVELOPMENT; 2022

CASS (Academia China de Ciencias Sociales) y CLACSO

The timing of this paper on the energy transition in Latin America is particularly noteworthy, given the ongoing energy crisis that has swept across the world following the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of European countries regarding energy security and has raised doubts about the feasibility of their short-term energy transition plans, especially in light of the European "Green Deal" and the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. In this context, it is paradoxical to consider the energy transition in Latin America, a region where the energy landscape is characterized by the dominance of hydrocarbons in some countries, and where efforts to transition to more sustainable energy sources face various political, economic, and social challenges. However, despite these challenges, this work provides a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and obstacles involved in achieving a sustainable energy future in Latin America, emphasizing the need for a collaborative and holistic approach to sustainable development goals in the region. Indeed, the combination of these tensions provides insights into reflecting on global economic instability in the face of a sharp increase in energy prices, food, and essential intermediate goods for industrial production, and economic inflation. The risk of further exacerbating the cost of living crisis could affect the most vulnerable populations, pushing them even further below the poverty line. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the challenges that must be overcome to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These challenges could include, for example, the tension to ensure short- and long-term energy security and to advance in the energy transition, the need to expand efforts to mitigate the impact of the energy sector on the climate crisis, ensure affordable energy costs, primarily, and ensure that this process becomes a vector of economic recovery in response to the negative effects on the labor market, poverty, and inequality that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated in large vulnerable sectors of the world population.