Energy transitions in the shadow of a dictator: Decarbonizing neoliberalism and lithium extraction in Chile

Abstract

The global economy’s neoliberal era began in 1973 with a military coup in Chile lead by General Augusto Pinochet. Though the country returned to civilian rule in 1990, the dictatorship continues to determine much of Chile’s political economy, especially in extractive sectors, a legacy that also carries consequences for decarbonization in the 21st century. As the latest stage of globalization, contemporary energy transitions offer an opportunity to examine the kind of global and local extractivisms established in the context of the dictatorship in Chile – an order that also accelerated the environmental impacts of the Anthropocene. Just as the Anthropocene is less a geological age defined by human activity as much as the compounding consequences of a relatively small segment of humanity, so too is neoliberalism traceable to specific people, histories, and institutions. This article traces these elements as Chile rewrites Pinochet’s constitution to highlight hopes and challenges of energy transitions as political, social, and ecological processes.