The report offers a comprehensive review of the status and trends in the region’s renewable energy development. It highlights Latin America’s wealth of knowledge, draws key lessons, and outlines findings to support the continued expansion of renewables for power generation, transport and other end-uses.
This book explores the potential for renewable energy development and the adoption of sustainable production processes in Latin America and the Caribbean. By examining the energy transition process, the impact of environmental degradation, and the relationship between renewable energy sources and economic growth, the effects of increased globalisation and liberalisation in this part of the world are analysed. Particular attention is given to renewable energy investment, the energy-economics growth nexus, the impact of trade openness, and the mitigation of carbon emissions. This book aims to highlight econometric techniques that can be used to tackle issues relating to globalisation, the energy transition, and environmental degradation. It will be relevant to researchers and policymakers interested in energy and environmental economics.
Physical Capital Development and Energy Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean introduces the reader to applied theory and potential solutions to manage the transition from fossil energies to renewables given the resource wealth and infrastructural limitations of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The work presents consistent empirical approaches and relevant econometric approaches grounded in case studies that offer realistic portrayals of complex multidisciplinary phenomena. It provides policymakers with the knowledge needed for economic decision-making, especially regarding the energy transition and the physical capital development in the LAC (and similar developing regions). The work concludes by road mapping future LAC physical capital investment options to promote 21st-century sustainable energy development. - Analyses the macroeconomics of physical capital and energy transition in LAC countries - Uses case studies to draw pragmatic comparative energy policy implications - Deploys econometric techniques to address empirical approaches on energy and development economics - Discusses the effects of the energy transition on environmental degradation - Links energy economics and public investment management
The Regulation and Policy of Latin American Energy Transitions examines the ongoing revolution within the energy landscape of Latin America. This book includes real-world examples from across the continent to demonstrate the current landscape of energy policy in Latin America. It focuses on distributed energy resources, including distributed generation, energy efficiency and microgrids, but also addresses the role of less common energy sources, such as geothermal and biogas, as well as discusses the changing role of energy actors, where consumers become prosumers or prosumagers, and utilities become service providers. The legal frameworks that are still hampering the transformation of the energy landscape are explored, together with an analysis of the economic, planning-related and social aspects of energy transitions, which can help address the issue of how inequalities are affecting and being affected by energy transitions. The book is suitable for policy makers, lawyers, economists and social science professionals working with energy policy, as well as researchers and industry professionals in the field. It is an ideal source for anyone involved in energy policy and regulation across Latin America.
This edited volume examines the impacts of the 2014-2015 decline in the price of oil. Participants will examine the economic, social and political consequences on states and regions, along with their responses. The following questions will be examined: what were the impacts for countries experiencing an energy revolution in shale and gas like the United States and Canada? What were the repercussions of the collapse on other states of the Western hemisphere dependent on oil for growth and development; countries like Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico? Were these outcomes similar to those experiences in other parts of world like Nigeria, Russia and other petro-producing countries? How do developing countries intend to cope with such drastic and sudden exogenous economic shock? Will there be any benefits for energy poor, consumer countries like China, India and European Union member states? Related to these issues are sustainable developmental questions and concerns about the environment. Will cheap oil force other alternative and renewable energy technologies out of the market given lack of competitiveness? Finally, the volume’s chapters will discuss prospects for governance in the new oil environment.
There is an increasing consensus in the scientific community that climate change is a real and present threat. Despite the large uncertainty on the timing, magnitude and even the direction of some of the physical and economic effects of this phenomenon, it is widely accepted that these effects will be regionally differentiated and that developing countries and lower income populations will tend to suffer the most. In this context, it is critical that Latin American and Caribbean countries develop their own strategies for adapting to the various impacts of climate change and for contributing to global efforts aimed at mitigation. 'Low Carbon, High Growth' contributes to these efforts by addressing a number of questions related to the causes and consequences of climate change in Latin America. What are the likely impacts of climate change in the region? Which countries and regions will be most affected? What can governments do to tackle the challenges associated with adapting to climate change? What role can Latin America and the Caribbean play in the area of climate change mitigation? How can the international community best help the region respond? While the study does not attempt to provide definitive answers to these questions, its goal is to contribute new information and analysis to help inform the public policy debate on this important issue.
This outlook highlights climate-safe investment options until 2050, policies for transition and specific regional challenges. It also explores options to eventually cut emissions to zero.
This book compares and contrasts the contemporary development experience of neighbouring, geographically similar countries with an analogous history of exploitation but by three different European colonisers. Studying the so-called ‘Three Guianas’ (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) offers a unique opportunity to look for similarities and differences in their contemporary patterns of development, particularly as they grapple with new and complex shifts in the regional, hemispheric and global context. Shaped decisively by their respective historical experiences, Guyana, in tandem with the laissez-faire approach of Britain toward its Caribbean colonies, was decolonised relatively early, in 1966, and has maintained a significant degree of distance from London. The hold of The Hague over Suriname, however, endured well after independence in 1975. French Guiana, by contrast, was decolonised much sooner than both of its neighbours, in 1946, but this was through full integration, thus cementing its place within the political economy and administrative structures of France itself. Traditionally isolated from the Caribbean, the wider Latin American continent and from each other, today, a range of similar issues – such as migration, resource extraction, infrastructure development and energy security – are coming to bear on their societies and provoking deep and complex changes.
This book introduces current managerial approaches to energy production and energy use. The volume analyses how to manage technological developments that contribute to lowering the price of energy production and also focuses on the impact renewable energy sources that provide continuity in energy production and how to manage it. The book presents studies on the effectiveness of wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric energies and discusses current technological approaches to prevent environmental pollution such as carbon capture and storage. Furthermore, the book includes sustainable economic and financial strategies to use energy more effectively and efficiently. It thus appeals not only to an academic readership but also to energy management professionals working in this field.
