Abstract
A renewable energy matrix plays a fundamental role in providing energy services ina sustainable platform and, particularly, to reduce climate change on a global basis. However,alternative energy sources usually poses extra challenges to adopters due to higher costs, mainlyin the developing and emerging countries where: 1) basic needs still remain to be covered, and 2)top technologies, such as the required in those initiatives, are likely not to be promptly available.This article aims to verify the status of the current renewable energy sources contribution tothe regular energy systems of some countries across the Latin American region as a measureto reduce the adverse impact over the average temperature and extreme climate events. LatinAmerica, despite its vast territory and considerable availability of natural resources – which couldwell place the region in a leading position in terms of alternative energy – is still in the earlystages of having the mindset and infrastructure required to respond to the current environmentalchallenges. This exploratory study compares the database of renewable energy and climatechange drivers of some Latin American countries, seeking to verify similarities and differences,as well as the possible effect of strategies and government policies, barriers and issues in thegeneration of an energy system that support the region economic growth while following the keyprinciples of sustainability. For our research, we use Multivariate Analysis based on a large set ofavailable and updated open public indicators to establish critical areas and regional progress. Themain finding is that, if not at length comparable to the leading EU countries and other advancedeconomies in the matter, some countries in the region have been presenting important advancesto date, being able to combine economic growth to friendly-environmental practices – oftena hard equation to solve – while others, on the contrary, stay behind in sustainable practices.Most importantly, at last, is the highlight of initiatives that stand out as positive examples havinghelped mitigate the environmental burden, clearly pointing towards solutions to the challenge ofhaving sustainable development inclusive practices in the Latin American region.
Highlights
Energy is considered, on a worldwide basis, as essential to the development of a nation.From the five modern energy sources: petroleum, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy and hydroelectricity, only the last one is renewable; its use is still relatively concentrated in some countries
In many countries there have been key investments in energy infrastructure works such as hydroelectric power plants, transmission networks, and water reservoirs
The challenge posed to the Latin American countries, and possibly to other emerging nations, is how to promote country growth to raise the social and economic standards to the population while keeping a close eye at the environment – that means make use of the least invading and damaging practices as possible to conserve nature and the environment
Summary
On a worldwide basis, as essential to the development of a nation. 2. Renewable energy In Latin America, Brazil stands out as a large country that managed to find a sustainable alternative to fossil fuel, with sugar-cane derived ethanol. These authors assert that, different from the recurrent and somewhat optimistic widespread view, the situation in Latin America is no better than in other regions of the world They comment that the initiatives to create renewable energy sources in the region are almost all limited to hydropower and biofuels. They call attention to the environmental damage required to build such huge constructions as well as the difficulties to have them to operate in a situation of dry weather and less water availability About the biofuels, they mention that industrial biofuels, like ethanol, might not help reducing greenhouse emissions while traditional biofuels as firewood and grass could cause deforestation or not follow sustainable practices. We carried out a multivariate analysis to verify similarities and differences among the Iberian American countries and of the countries of the advanced economies and the remaining countries, whose results are shown in the table 1 below:
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