Americas Quarterly

the

environment

Latin American Energy
and Climate Leaders Are Already
Emerging—the United States
Should Partner with Them

Efforts in our own neighborhood are key. Last April, at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, the launch of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas signaled a strong start to cooperation on advancing energy security and addressing climate change. More recently, in August, the North American Leaders’ Declaration highlighted a shared vision for a low-carbon North America. We now have to follow words with actions.

The good news is that we have many willing partners in this endeavor. Debates about U.S.-Latin American relations have often devolved into questions about the merits and, for some, the demerits of an “American model” for economics or politics. When it comes to climate, the reality is that Latin American countries are finding their own models—with lessons and best practices of value to all of us. We need to help these countries build on their successes and share them regionally.

Important actions are already underway. President Óscar Arias recently announced the goal of transforming Costa Rica into the world’s first carbon-neutral country by 2021. While Costa Rica has earned a well-deserved reputation as an environmental trailblazer, it is hardly alone in the region. Mexico, too, is taking major steps forward.

Earlier this year, President Felipe Calderón announced a new plan to assist Mexico in reducing its overall carbon emissions by 24 percent by 2014. The cuts will be achieved through more efficient cars and power plants, as well as by reductions in gas leaks and flaring by the oil industry. Over the next 10 years, Mexico has promised to plant 250 million trees across the country and expand sustainable forestry by 6. 4 million acres ( 2. 6 million hectares) a year.

Calderón, a former energy minister, has said he envisions a tenfold increase in the capacity of Mexico’s 100-megawatt “La Venta” wind farm over the next six years. The new $550 million project is in a region so breezy that the town is named La Vento-sa, or “Windy.” The wind farm will produce enough

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Climate change is not an abstract challenge for decades from now. Its impacts are already being felt stronger and faster than expected. Here are some of the dangers that Latin America faces:

Already the world’s glaciers are melting at a higher rate.

Sea Level Rise

Sixty of Latin America’s 77 largest cities are located on its coasts. In their 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found a global average sea-level rise of up to two feet—an estimate considered conservative by many experts—is likely to affect, in particular, vulnerable parts of the Caribbean, Central America, Venezuela, and Uruguay.

energy to power a city of 500,000 people, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 600,000 metric tons each year.

Brazil, too, is a success story in the making. Brazil’s $23 billion sugarcane-based ethanol industry fuels 380 plants nationwide and employs nearly 900,000 people. Before the oil crisis of the 1970s, Brazil was importing 90 percent of the oil it consumed. Today, the efficiency and rapid growth of the biofuels program is a model that can be duplicated around the world. Brazil now imports less than 30 percent of its oil. Its ethanol program does not rely on government subsidies to be profitable, and ethanol yields eight times more energy than is used in its production.

Latin American countries have already begun to embrace a clean energy future. Now, the U.S. must build on these efforts through collaboration and by support-