News

The Research Group Space and Power, represented by Professor Deborah Werner from IPPUR/UFRJ, took part in the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Conference of Social Sciences (CLACSO), held from June 9 to 12, 2025, in Bogotá, Colombia.

Professor Werner has been a member of the Working Group on Energy and Sustainable Development since 2019. The group, coordinated by Esteban Serrani (Escuela Interdisciplinaria de Altos Estudios Sociales, Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina) and Nora Estela Fernández Mora (Facultad de Ciencias Humanas, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador), addresses the specificity of energy policies adopted in Latin America and the Caribbean and their impacts on prevailing development patterns in the region, while considering challenges, limits, and obstacles in the context of climate crisis and energy poverty.

Throughout the week, the WG engaged in a variety of activities, coordinating thematic panels, forums, and meetings to disseminate research and strengthen partnerships. Professor Werner moderated the panel “Environment, Climate Change, Transitions, and Social Development” and presented the paper entitled Neo-extractivist Energy Transition: the Construction of Renewable Energy Markets in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In the panel “Energy Reforms in Latin America: Between Sustainability and the Narratives of Climate Denialism,” organized by the WGs on Energy and Sustainable Development and Critical Legal Thought and Sociopolitical Conflicts, and reported by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), Professor Werner highlighted the contradictions between the global agenda’s proposed climate action measures and the environmental inequalities generated by the expansion of renewable energies, using the Brazilian case as an example.

The CLACSO Conference takes place every two years, presenting the results of research carried out by its WGs.

For more information on CLACSO’s actions, courses, and events, please visit the institution’s website.