ENERGY: Switching to Sustainability

Abstract: 

Can Latin America make the switch to sustainable energy? Berkeley students are developing modeling tools that help identify cost-effective energy reforms.

Emerging economies will account for more than 90 percent of new energy-generation capacity by 2035, and Latin America is no exception to this trend. In the last 40 years, the region’s primary energy demand has more than doubled. In a global environment of increasingly volatile fuel prices, emerging technologies, and climate-change impacts, the continued increase in demand presents challenges and opportunities to Latin America and the Caribbean. To manage the next phase of development, the region’s governments will need to develop new energy sources and pay more attention to sustainability.

Author: 
Daniel M. Kammen
Rebekah Shirley
Juan Pablo Carvallo
Diego Ponce de Leon Barido
Publication date: 
January 14, 2014
Publication type: 
Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies Article