sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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C. ENERGY: ENERGY INTENSITY, EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABILITY
Although the desired goal is to bring about a progressive reduction in the amount of energy used per unit
of output, energy intensity has been declining much more slowly in Latin America and the Caribbean than
in other regions (see figure I.<strong>20</strong>). The slow pace of progress in this respect is attributable to the production
patterns discussed above, the fact that environmental and health costs are not factored into policy
decisions, the use of consumption and production subsidies, and the low priority that policymakers have
assigned to energy efficiency, among other factors.
800
Figure I.<strong>20</strong>
ENERGY INTENSITY OF THE ECONOMY
(Kg of petroleum equivalent per US$ 1,000 of GDP at constant <strong>20</strong>05 PPP prices)
700
600
500
400
300
<strong>20</strong>0
100
0
China World United States OECD
(high income)
Latin America and
the Caribbean
European Union
1990 <strong>20</strong>00 <strong>20</strong>08
Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), on the basis of World Bank, World Development
Indicators [on line] http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-<strong>development</strong>-indicators [date of reference: December <strong>20</strong>11].
Note: Energy intensity is measured as the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP, which, to some extent, indicates how
energy-efficient a country is. It also reflects, to a certain degree, a country’s economic structure at the sectoral level,
including the carbon content of the goods that it imports and exports. For example, two countries which have similar
levels of energy efficiency by sector but in which economic activity has a different sectoral distribution will have
different aggregate levels of energy intensity. By the same token, a country that imports carbon-intensive goods will
have a lower degree of energy intensity than a country that produces and exports such products (WRI, <strong>20</strong>09).
1. Energy efficiency
The steady rise in international crude oil prices has spurred the introduction of a number of national energy
efficiency programmes by countries in the region (see table I.7).
Programmes aimed at promoting energy efficiency have made a great deal of progress, but the
lack of sufficient funding has hampered their efforts. Another crucial factor for the success of energy
efficiency policies and programmes is proper coordination among different governmental sectors to
ensure policy coherence. Subsidies based on economic considerations that fail to take the environmental
costs of energy use into account are at cross-purposes with the countries’ energy efficiency programmes.