The energy transition in Latin America

Although the energy transition will, as we shall see, pose several difficult choices for regional governments, there are some encouraging factors affecting the way it will play out in Latin America and the Caribbean as a group. In an article published in early 2023 Mauricio Cárdenas, the former Colombian energy and finance minister (2011-2012 and 2012-2018), argues that the region has three major and unique assets to tackle the energy crisis: first, it is one of the world’s top food exporting regions; second, it has plentiful renewable and non-renewable energy resources; and, third, it is home to major bio-diversity particularly in the Amazon and other tropical rainforests, as well as other habitats such as lithium-intensive salt flats in the Andes mountain range. Among other benefits the region is comparatively peaceful (setting aside domestic conflict there have been no major conventional wars for decades), and it has multiple free trade agreements. While Cárdenas acknowledges recent challenges, he says the region remains broadly democratic and has managed political transitions peacefully, including the recent swing to the left in several of the larger countries.

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