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

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For the region as a whole, the renewable portion of the energy supply fell from 25.0% in 1990 to
23.2% in <strong>20</strong>09, the most recent year for which information is available. However, the share of renewable
sources in total supply varies significantly from one country to another. The renewable proportion of the
energy supply represents over 67% in Paraguay and a mere 0.1% in Trinidad and Tobago. 23
Hydroelectricity makes up a very large part of Brazil’s energy matrix, and the country has implemented a
very successful long-term strategy for the <strong>development</strong> of its biofuels industry. In Mexico, renewable
sources were slightly above 10% of the total in <strong>20</strong>02, but have since dropped below that figure
(Altomonte, <strong>20</strong>08).
Since the 1990s, the share of primary energy supplies accounted for by renewable sources has
declined due to changes in energy markets that have created incentives for short-term investment while
disregarding environmental and health-care costs. This has led to a slowdown in investments in hydroenergy
and to an upswing in investment in hydrocarbons. The burst in growth in hydropower seen in
1970-1990 began to subside when investment shifted to thermoelectric plants. Major hydroelectric complexes
were built in the 1970s and 1980s, when the State was the main player in energy-sector <strong>development</strong> in
most of the countries of the region. These projects, which figured as a component of the relevant
countries’ <strong>development</strong> plans, were provided with long-term financing and government loan guarantees
tailored to the scales of production and lead times involved in this type of strategic venture (Acquatella,
<strong>20</strong>10). Reforms introduced in the electricity industry in the 1990s failed to take the environmental costs of
the various alternatives into account and, as a result, gave preference to thermoelectric projects over
large-scale hydroelectric plants. Thermoelectric plants take much less time to build, are smaller in scale
and are easier to position closer to sources of demand. In the absence of mechanisms for internalizing the
environmental costs of the various options, private investors’ assessment of these factors leads them to
conclude that thermoelectric plans entail fewer risks than large-scale hydroelectric plants.
Since <strong>20</strong>00, most of the countries in the region have passed laws to promote investment in
renewable energy sources and, in some cases, have taken other specific steps to this end. Table I.9 provides
an overview of the laws that different countries in the region have passed to promote the <strong>development</strong> of
renewable energy sources. Most of these measures have focused on the economic impacts of high oil prices
and on ways of reducing the costs of attaining greater energy security rather than on greater environmental
sustainability; however, in practice, they gave a boost to renewable energies in the region.
Considerations to be taken into account in the future <strong>development</strong> of the region’s energy matrix
include not only customary sorts of economic and social needs, but also the cost of environmental impacts
of alternative energy sources, especially as the world’s economies will be transitioning towards lowercarbon
solutions. Although hydropower now accounts for a smaller relative share of the total energy supply,
Latin America and the Caribbean remains the leading region in this area, and this energy source holds out an
enormous and as-yet undeveloped potential. Indeed, hydroelectricity is likely to play a significant role in the
region in coming decades. However, although hydroelectric projects help to reduce the demand for fossil
fuels and diminish the energy sector’s footprint (see section II.4), they have raised other environmental and
social issues when they have been proposed. The large-scale hydroelectric plants that have been built in the
region in recent <strong>years</strong> or that are in the process of being built have sparked disputes with other users of the
same watersheds, local population groups (especially indigenous communities) and environmental groups.
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These data, which relate to <strong>20</strong>09, were calculated by ECLAC on the basis of statistics from the Energy Economic
Information System (SIEE) of the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE).