Abstract
Cuba has been remarkably successful at revitalising its energy sector over the last two decades, significantly increasing efficiency and reducing energy intensity and emissions. This article analyses those successes and looks at the policy challenges ahead for Cuba to achieve its 2030 energy policy goals. We argue the nascent success of the 2006 Energy Revolution is due to its comprehensive approach, targeting infrastructure, consumption habits and people's understanding of energy issues. We then examine some of Cuba's current energy challenges, presenting data on Cuba's energy mix as of 2014. We analyse the country's proposed energy policy to achieve 24% penetration of renewable energies in electricity generation by 2030. The Cuban government has an array of policy tools, from stimulating domestic production to changing foreign investment regulations, in order to achieve its goals. One of the most significant recent policy shifts includes the External Investment Law, which creates a regulatory framework and policies, including ones to utilise and develop perspectives of renewable sources of energy that will help to expedite the path toward a diverse energy mix with a large presence of renewables.
Highlights
In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) declared Cuba the only country to have achieved sustainable development (WWF 2006)
The continued supply of oil from the Soviet Union was a factor that impeded the transformation of the energy mix by stabilising the energy crisis and reducing the need to turn to other sources of energy, in spite of the vast renewable energy resources Cuba possesses
Increasing energy autonomy of the Cuban economy is a factor of vital importance within the current economic transformations, if we consider the need to reduce the importing of fuels in the balance of payments of the country, that was estimated at 32% of the value of the imports in 2008 and increased to 46.9% in 2012, according to the Statistical Yearbook of Cuba (Rodríguez 2014)
Summary
In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) declared Cuba the only country to have achieved sustainable development (WWF 2006). Cuba often tops lists of sustainable or green countries (see Famelli 2007 for a brief review of the measures). Cuba had a number of successful policy responses to deal with the economic crisis, culminating in the 2006 Energy Revolution, the focus of this article’s analysis. Cuba has been remarkably successful at revitalising its energy sector over the last two decades, significantly increasing efficiency and reducing energy intensity and emissions. CEPAL states that between 1990 and 2014 the energy intensity of the GDP of Cuba decreased from 2.08 boe/1,000 USD to 1.00 boe/1,000 USD, in constant 2010 prices. The reasons for that have been different and include structural changes due to faster GDP growth compared with the Total Primary Energy Supply, and structural changes due to economic crisis, and efficiency measures. We examine some of Cuba’s current energy challenges, and analyse the country’s proposed energy policy to achieve 24% penetration of renewable energies in electricity generation by 2030
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