The Paris Agreement, approved by 195 countries during UNFCCC’s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in December 2015, is a milestone for policies for combating climate change. The Agreement’s main goal is to limit temperature increase during this century to levels substantially lower than 2oC in relation to pre-industrial levels and to engender efforts to limit that increase to 1.5oC.

This will not be an easy task. According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, anthropogenic emissions increased substantially between 1970 and 2010, and accelerated in the last decade of this period. The energy sector is the largest global contributor to GHG emissions, accounting for approximately 35% of total emissions in 2010. Thus, a sustainable energy transition to a low carbon economy will have an important role in promoting changes in the global climate scenario.

However, energy guidelines and contribution goals for the sector in several countries and regions will be different in many aspects. Recent global demand scenarios show different rates for energy transition in the world. Among the factors that will influence the speed of this transition are technological advances – in particular clean technologies – access to funding and the development of appropriate public policies and regulatory framework.

In order to better understand these different developments, this study focus on the analysis of challenges and opportunities for energy transition in Latin America through the assessment of data of selected countries given as examples. This analysis starts with the presentation of these countries’ current political and economic structure and conditions, as well as the availability of natural resources and funds. In particular, it is essential to prioritize an agenda of macroeconomic and political reforms in several countries in the region in order to attract investments that are important for the development of an infrastructure that is compatible with the adoption of new clean technologies. In this context, we discuss public policy initiatives in the energy sector and the challenges each country faces towards a low carbon economy.

Finally, we discuss the different levels of society engagement regarding the climate agenda of each observed country in Europe and Latin America. Discussing the region’s peculiarities in addressing the energy transition may contribute to a better understanding of important aspects of the energy policy of each country and help build a convergent vision about the relation between energy and climate change in the world.

We invite you to read the publication! The file is available above in PDF format for free download. You can also access it in Flipping Book format here.