Is a just energy transition possible? Questions and light from Latin America

Is a just energy transition possible? Questions and light from Latin America. February 22 - 1:25 PM to 5:00 PM Field Auditorium. Nicholas School of the Environment. Duke University. Decarbonizing the electric power system and electrifying transportation, cooking, heating, and other energy uses will require massive infrastructure development. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will lower the chances of catastrophic climate change, reduce air pollution, and create other valuable co-benefits. But, at the same time, this transition will require significant land-use changes with the potential to disrupt numerous landscapes, ecosystems, and ways of thinking and living. Latin American scholars have called attention to the perils of a new green extraction-based economy that aestheticizes and invisibilizes dispossession, infringing indigenous rights and minimizing the urgency of their demands, all in the name of environmental causes. This panel will focus on the energy transition in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. It will briefly review the stated government plans to decarbonize the energy system and its implementation challenges, paying particular attention to impacts on indigenous communities, peasants, and low-income urban dwellers. Panelists will review the prior consultation processes and specific cases of indigenous resistance to different energy infrastructure projects. Scholars and students from the humanities, environmental sciences, and power systems analysis will tackle the question: is a just energy transition possible? Moderator: Dalia Patino-Echeverri. Associate Professor of Energy Systems and Public Policy Nicholas School of the Environment Speakers: Nilton Bispo Amado University of Sao Paulo Mariana Traldi Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo -IFS Ana Tamborell. Iniciativa Climática de México Mauricio Hernandez Nicholas School of the Environment Duke University Bernardo Pinilla Zuleta Universidad Externado de Colombia Amanda Ullman UNC Chapel Hill