ENERGÍAS RENOVABLES EN AMERICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE PARA LA MITIGACIÓN DEL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO

Abstract

In recent decades, climate change has gained interest in the international scientific community due to the constant increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (mainly CO2) and its consequences in various states in the economic, social, and environmental fields. Simultaneously, world energy demand has been growing hand in hand with economic and demographic development worldwide. In this sense, nations have been choosing to diversify their energy matrixes in order to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, betting on different renewable energy alternatives. This review aims to describe the current state of the Latin American region in terms of the deployment of installation and use of renewable energy alternatives to carbon sources. Dualities stand out between nations such as Paraguay or Costa Rica which almost entirely consume their energy from renewable sources and others such as Trinidad and Tobago which still depend mainly on non-renewable sources and must invest efforts in energy diversification. Similarly, there is an organized group among Latin American states in favor of renewable energy development called "Renewables in Latin America and the Caribbean (RELAC)".