Energy and Sustainable Development

The relationship between natural resource exploitation and economic development strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean has been a central issue in the Social Sciences for over half a century.

Energy production and consumption are inseparable from the growth of any economy and are closely linked to industrialization and productivity increases, as well as to the social well-being of the population.

Within the context of global transformations surrounding the peak in fossil demand, the push for renewable energy sources, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change—even amid the gasification of the global energy matrix, which is rapidly reshaping international geopolitical relations—this Working Group aims to study the specific energy policies adopted in Latin America and the Caribbean and their effects in order to understand the current development patterns in the region and their main obstacles.

In doing so, it will consider historical issues such as energy security and access; the generation of private rents and state capture; the socio-environmental impacts of energy production and consumption; the role of state-owned companies and foreign direct investment; the development of endogenous industrial capacities and technological dependence. Additionally, at the regional level, energy must be recognized as a driving force behind numerous bilateral and multilateral integration projects. Lastly, the growing influence of the climate change agenda on sectoral policy is also noteworthy.