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Epilogue: Changing Latin America Through the Energy Transformation?

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From Fossil Fuels to Low Carbon Energy Transition

Part of the book series: Energy, Climate and the Environment ((ECE))

Abstract

Can the energy transformation change Latin America? This is the underlying issue that one keeps wondering about while reading the contributions in ‘From Fossil Fuels to Low Carbon Energy Transition: New Regulatory Trends in Latin America’. In this Epilogue, I discuss the contributions to this book around three themes: resource abundance, renewable energy investment and energy justice.  

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Notes

  1. 1.

    International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, October 2021: Recovering During a Pandemic (Washington D.C., 2021), p. 5.

  2. 2.

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, El papel de la transición energética en la recuperación sostenible de América Latina y el Caribe, Nota Técnica No IDB-TN-02142, April 2021.

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Carlos De León, Carlos, ‘La Transición Energética Latinoamericana Pospandémica’, Observatorio Económico Latinoamericano, No. 26 (2021); Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (n 2); United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), América Latina y el Caribe tiene todas las condiciones para convertirse en un hub de energía renovable con gran potencial en hidrógeno verde, https://www.cepal.org/es/noticias/america-latina-caribe-tiene-todas-condiciones-convertirse-un-hub-energia-renovable-gran (22 June 2021).

  4. 4.

    European Commission, The European Green Deal, COM (2019) 640 final (11 December 2019).

  5. 5.

    European Commission, ‘Fit for 55’: delivering the EU’s 2030 Climate Target on the way to climate neutrality, COM (2021) 550 final (14 July 2021).

  6. 6.

    The World Bank, ‘Access to electricity (% of population)—Latin America (1992–2019)’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS?locations=ZJ.

  7. 7.

    Milton Fernando Montoya; Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui; et alia, ‘Meanings of energy poverty in the South American context: a regional overview’ in Íñigo Del Guayo; Lee Godden; Donald D Zillman; Milton Fernando Montoya; José Juan González (eds), Energy Justice and Energy Law (Oxford University Press, 2020); Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (n 2), pp. 20–21.

  8. 8.

    Venezuela, for example, has the largest proven oil and gas reserves in the world, estimated at 303 billion oil barrels, about 19% of the world’s total: U.S. Energy Information Administration, ‘Venezuela’, https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/VEN.

  9. 9.

    The International Renewable Energy Agency reports that around a quarter of the total energy consumption in Latin America comes from renewable sources, more than double the world’s average: International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), ‘Latin America and the Caribbean’, https://www.irena.org/lac.

  10. 10.

    For some reflections regarding energy transition, electrification and the interplay between hydrocarbons and its own transition, see: Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui and Aleksander Glapiak, ‘Wind of Change: A Scandinavian Perspective on Energy Transition and the ‘Greenification’ of the Oil and Gas Sector’ (Forthcoming 2022). Available at SSRN, https://ssrn.com/abstract=3829455.

  11. 11.

    International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Renewable Energy Markets Analysis—Latin America (2016), p. 6.

  12. 12.

    Ibid, p. 10.

  13. 13.

    Ibid, p. 6.

  14. 14.

    See for more on this: Lisa Viscidi and Ariel Yépez-García, Clean energy auctions in Latin America, (Inter-American Development Bank 2020).

  15. 15.

    Izei Atxalandabaso, ‘Renewable energy in Latin America: 5 renewable energy trends emerging from south of Rio Grande’ (Rated Power, 2021), https://ratedpower.com/blog/renewable-energy-latin-america/.

  16. 16.

    IRENA (n 11), p. 10.

  17. 17.

    Atxalandabaso (n 15).

  18. 18.

    Rystad Energy, ‘Latin America’s renewable energy capacity set to skyrocket to 123 GW by 2025’ (8 September 2020), https://www.rystadenergy.com/newsevents/news/press-releases/latin-americas-renewable-energy-capacity-set-to-skyrocket-to-123-gw-by-2025/.

  19. 19.

    The electrification of the transport sector is a pending global issue. There are examples of national programmes introducing, for example, electric buses thanks to international cooperation. See, for example: DW, ‘Transición energética: América Latina en la carrera’ (12 April 2019), https://www.dw.com/es/transici%C3%B3n-energ%C3%A9tica-am%C3%A9rica-latina-en-la-carrera/a-48310900.

  20. 20.

    According to Venezuela’s site at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Venezuela’s oil revenues account for about 99% of its export earnings. OPEC, ‘Venezuela’, https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/171.htm.

  21. 21.

    U.S. Energy Information Administration, ‘Mexico’, https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/MEX.

  22. 22.

    CEIC Data, ‘Brazil Crude Oil: Production’, https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/brazil/crude-oil-production.

  23. 23.

    CEIC Data, ‘Colombia Crude Oil: Production, https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/colombia/crude-oil-production.

  24. 24.

    OEC, ‘Bolivia’, https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bol.

  25. 25.

    Together, even after the sharp decrease caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they represent around 83% of the globe’s total energy demand. For some data on this, see BP, Statistical Review of World Energy (2021, 70th Edition), p. 12.

  26. 26.

    CEPAL (n 3).

  27. 27.

    Geoffrey Wood, ‘Managing the Decline of Fossil Fuels: A Long Goodbye?’, in: Geoffrey Wood; Keith Baker (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Managing Fossil Fuels and Energy Transitions (Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2020) p. 614.

  28. 28.

    See for more: Ruben Berrios; Andrae Marak; Scott Morgenstern, ‘Explaining hydrocarbon nationalization in Latin America: Economics and political ideology’, Review of International Political Economy 18, no. 5 (2011); Osmel Manzano; Francisco Monaldi; Federico Sturzenegger, ‘The political economy of oil production in Latin America [with comments]’, Economía 9, no. 1 (2008).

  29. 29.

    Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui and Tina Soliman Hunter, ‘Oil as Currency: Venezuela’s Petro, a New “Oil Pattern”?’Oil Gas and Energy Law (OGEL) 2 (2019).

  30. 30.

    IRENA (n 11), p. 11.

  31. 31.

    Ibid, p. 8.

  32. 32.

    Rystad Energy, ‘Latin America’s renewable energy capacity set to skyrocket to 123 GW by 2025’ (8 September 2020), https://www.rystadenergy.com/newsevents/news/press-releases/latin-americas-renewable-energy-capacity-set-to-skyrocket-to-123-gw-by-2025/.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    The Dialogue, ‘China’s Renewable Energy Investment in Latin America’ (8 September 2021), https://www.thedialogue.org/blogs/2021/09/chinas-renewable-energy-investment-in-latin-america/.

  35. 35.

    IRENA (n 11), p. 9.

  36. 36.

    Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (n 2).

  37. 37.

    IRENA (n 11), p. 12–13.

  38. 38.

    Organization of American States, Policy Reform for Sustainable Energy in Latin America and the Caribbean, Policy Series No 5, (2004), p. 2.

  39. 39.

    Norton Rose Fullbright, ‘Renewable energy in Latin America: Central America’ (October 2016), https://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/en/knowledge/publications/1e7b0a75/renewable-energy-in-latin-america-central-america; IRENA (n 11), p. 12.

  40. 40.

    For some literature on this see, inter alia, Alicia Puyana Mutis, ‘La economía petrolera en un mercado politizado y global. México y Colombia’, FLACSO (Mexico, 2015); Guillermo J. García Sánchez, ‘The Mexican petroleum licence of 2013’, in Tina Soliman Hunter; Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde; Ernst Nordtveit (eds) The Character of Petroleum Licences (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020); Tina Soliman Hunter; Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, ‘Shale gas regulation in Mexico and Colombia: An uncertain future’, in Tina Soliman Hunter; Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui; Penelope Crossley, Penelope; Gloria Alvarez (eds), Routledge Handbook of Energy Law (Routledge, 2020).

  41. 41.

    IRENA (n 11), p. 10.

  42. 42.

    PV Tech, ‘Project briefing: Defying COVID and protests in solar’s Latin America hotspot’, (31 December 2020), https://www.pv-tech.org/project-briefing-defying-covid-and-protests-in-solars-latin-america-hotspot/.

  43. 43.

    For some discussion of these issues, see, for example: International Service for Human Rights, Mexico |What you didn’t know about renewable energies: the struggle of the Binnizá people of Unión Hidalgo (17 June 2021).

  44. 44.

    Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, ‘Renewable energy (in) justice in Latin America’ (6 August 2021), https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/briefings/renewable-energy-injustice-in-latin-america/.

  45. 45.

    See also highlighting the importance of integration, Kadri Simson; Thauan Santos, ‘Transición energética y áreas geográficas: qué está sucediendo en Europa y América Latina?’, Enel Green Power, https://www.enelgreenpower.com/es/learning-hub/debates/transicion-energetica-europa-america-latina; “Regional integration is urgently needed to unlock new sustainable growth opportunities and to improve the resilience of energy systems across the region”, World Energy Council, World Scenarios 2017—Latin America & The Caribbean Energy Scenarios (2017), p. 2.

  46. 46.

    Several Latin American countries have forms of pricing carbon, with Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina as good representatives. The literature points out, however, that national, and not regional schemes may create inequalities as well as lead to increased prices of energy but also almost any other good, to the detriment of the poorest societal sectors. See for a thorough discussion of carbon pricing schemes and policy suggestions: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (n 2).

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui

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Correspondence to Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui .

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  1. School of Law, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

    Geoffrey Wood

  2. Department of Mining and Energy Law, Externado University, Bogota, Colombia

    Juan Felipe Neira-Castro

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Herrera Anchustegui, I. (2022). Epilogue: Changing Latin America Through the Energy Transformation?. In: Wood, G., Neira-Castro, J.F. (eds) From Fossil Fuels to Low Carbon Energy Transition. Energy, Climate and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00299-1_14

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