Hydropower, a major energy source for many countries, is not included in the dataset. Although considered a renewable source by many, hydropower projects are often associated with adverse impacts on people and biodiversity, involving large-scale deforestation and the relocation of communities who conserve forests. Moreover, their costs and construction typically overrun and changes in rainfall patterns mean that both their long-term reliability as an energy source and bankability as investments are far from assured. 

The data, which was compiled by cross-checking information from state sources, operating companies, industrial guilds and press releases, is intended to serve as a reference point for those hoping to understand Latin American countries’ progress in the clean energy transition. The information on the locations, financial backers and power sources helps build up a clearer picture of the main motors behind it.

Latin America’s renewable energy transition
Our map plots 850 non-hydro renewable energy plants in 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries for which we were able to collect data. For Brazil and Mexico, we set the minimum installed capacity for a project’s inclusion in the dataset at 50MW, owing to the sheer number of smaller projects. Of our total, solar power accounts for 49% while 46% are wind. The remainder is geothermal. More than three-quarters of the projects are owned by private companies. Chile accounts for almost a quarter of all projects on our map (24%), followed by Brazil (21%), Mexico (14%) and Argentina (9%). 

Over 80% of Chile’s plants are solar. In Uruguay, wind accounts for the same share. Argentina has a more even distribution, with 60% wind and 40% solar. These three countries have seen a big push for renewable energy in recent years, including the inauguration of Cauchari, Latin America’s largest solar plant - for now. 

Brazil’s northeast is seemingly on the cusp a solar revolution, with seven projects with an installed capacity of 1GW or more in the pipeline, including a major cluster in Juazeiro, Bahia, which has ideal climatic conditions, and the largest, Aurora Energia’s 5700MW plant in Matias Cardoso, Pernambuco. These are also located within the Caatinga biome. 86% of finance for wind and solar projects in Brazil comes from the private sector

Private capital is also leading the renewable energy transition in Brazil, financing 154, or 86%, of all projects. Only 8% of finance comes from state-owned companies – either Brazilian or Chinese. China is the only foreign country providing state finance to companies investing in solar and wind projects above 50MW in Brazil. In the Amazon region, Brazil has no projects of this size.

Mexico has a large concentration of wind farms in the south of Oaxaca state and most farms are located in the Yucatán peninsula in the eastern part of the country. Solar projects run down the middle of Mexico and also the north, where there is high long-term potential for photovoltaic power, according to the Global Solar Atlas. Despite high-levels of solar irradiation in such states as Sinaloa, there are no solar plants. Nor are there wind projects. In these states, governance is weak and security is a major concern.

The Andean region’s energy transition appears to be progressing slower than other Latin American sub-regions. Peru’s Amazon has only one renewable energy plant; the Atalaya Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant, while all others are located on the southern coast of the country, in the desert that extends into Chile. 

Set to be inaugurated in 2023, Bolivia’s 100MW Laguna Colorada Geothermal Power Plant will be the largest renewable energy project in the country, generating 50% of the country’s non-hydro renewable energy. All projects - operational or under construction - are in the hands of ENDE, Bolivia's national electricity company. 

Colombia has 38 projects under construction but only one currently operational wind plant, on the northern tip of La Guajira department. There have already been reported conflicts with indigenous communities over wind development in Colombia, which is set to expand considerably. Over the border in Venezuela, one single plant represents the country's only operational unconventional energy project. The country derives around 70% of its energy from the Guri hydroelectric plant.

Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands stand out in deriving all their energy needs from wind and solar energy projects. 

Renewable energy goals
It is technically and economically feasible to scale up renewable power in Latin America. Under a scenario set out by the International Renewable Energy Agency in which the global energy system is consistent with the Paris Agreement, 93% of the region’s electricity would come from renewable energy in 2050. 

This energy transition would not only clean up the grid but also boost the economy. A report last year by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) found that decarbonisation will generate 15 million new jobs overall and an additional 100,000 full-time jobs in the renewable electricity sector by 2030, compared to projections based on current trends.

There are many questions to be answered around China’s signal of greater support for renewables in developing nations. For example, it is as yet unknown whether the pledge includes hydropower. For Latin America, it could represent an opportunity to capitalise on the availability of new finance that enables it to reach its decarbonisation goals. 
 
Data compiled by Emilio Godoy, Damián Profeta, Jorge Chávez, Sarita Reed and Vinícius Henrique Fontana, with support from Robert Soutar, Fermín Koop, Alejandra Cuéllar, Jack Lo, Lívia Machado Costa and Flávia Milhorance. Map designed by Julia Janicki.

Wind and solar installations in Latin America will bounce back in 2021 after a pandemic-related slowdown in 2020, according to analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (Bloomberg NEF). Bloomberg NEF projects that new wind and solar installations will exceed 10 gigawatts (GW) for the first time in the region. They further project "around 30GW of total new additions through 2023, boosting cumulative utility-scale wind and solar capacity of 48GW today by two thirds."

The government of Ecuador this month announced two new renewable energy auctions for a total allocation of 1 GW, according to PV Magazine. The first auction will be held at the end of November 2021 for 500 MW, an estimated investment of $750 million with projects required to be operational at the beginning of 2024. The second auction for an additional 500 MW is planned for 2022.
 
Last year, in its December 2020 renewable energy auction, the government awarded Solarpack Corporación Tecnológica, S.A. a long-term concession contract for the 258 MW solar PV project, El Aromo, located in the province of Manabí. This project will significantly increase solar generation capacity in Ecuador.
 
GlobalData, a data and analytics company, projects strong growth in Ecuador’s solar capacity during this decade: “With an expected growth of about 15% over the decade, an optimistic scenario reflects a situation where annual installations pick up the pace every year starting from 2023 …[with] cumulative installed capacity of more than 4GW by 2030.”

Climate Week NYC 2021: September 20-26, 2021
New York City
https://www.climateweeknyc.org/

Hosted annually by international non-profit the Climate Group in conjunction with the United Nations, and in partnership with the COP26 and the City of New York, Climate Week NYC is a global opportunity to come together to accelerate climate action and assess progress ahead of COP26. 
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UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26): Oct. 31- Nov. 12, 2021 
Glasgow, Scotland
https://ukcop26.org/

The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The conference will mobilize action towards the following goals:

1. Secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach: Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net zero by the middle of the century.
To deliver on these stretching targets, countries will need to:

• accelerate the phase-out of coal
• curtail deforestation
• speed up the switch to electric vehicles
• encourage investment in renewables.

2. Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats: The climate is already changing and it will continue to change even as we reduce emissions, with devastating effects. At COP26 we need to work together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to:

• protect and restore ecosystems
• build defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives

3. Mobilise finance: To deliver on our first two goals, developed countries must make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100bn in climate finance per year by 2020. 
International financial institutions must play their part and we need work towards unleashing the trillions in private and public sector finance required to secure global net zero.

4. Work together to deliver: We can only rise to the challenges of the climate crisis by working together. At COP26 we must:

• finalise the Paris Rulebook (the detailed rules that make the Paris Agreement operational)
• accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis through collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society.

In June 2021, the Renewables Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) released the 2021 edition of the Renewables Global Status Report. The report, which compiles data on energy policies and markets, provides the most up-to-date global picture on renewable energy.

The report shows continued progress in the power sector: "Today, almost all new power capacity is renewable. [Renewables represented 83% of net power capacity additions in 2020.] More than 256 GW were added globally in 2020 – surpassing the previous record by nearly 30%. In more and more regions, including parts of China, the EU, India and the United States, it is now cheaper to build new wind or solar PV plants than to operate existing coal-fired power plants."

However, from a climate perspective, this success is not nearly enough because fossil fuels remain the dominant source of energy in other sectors, including transportation, heating, and cooling. Burning fossil fuels is the major contributor to climate change and also contributes to biodiversity loss and pollution. The report shows that the "share of fossil fuels in the total energy mix is as high as a decade ago (80.3% vs. 80.2% today)."

While many countries have adopted renewable energy and zero-carbon goals, the transition to a clean energy economy is still too far on the horizon. “We are waking up to the bitter reality that the climate policy promises over the past ten years have mostly been empty words. The share of fossil fuels in final energy consumption has not moved by an inch,” said Rana Adib, REN21’s Executive Director. “Phasing them out and making renewables the new norm are the strongest actions we can take.”

​REN21's call to action echoes the findings of the International Energy Agency (IEA) earlier this year. In May 2021, the IEA called for a "Net Zero by 2050" energy sector based largely on renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. (For more on the IEA report, see our May 2021 blog post).

The following resources are available from REN21:

• Full report: EN
• Key Messages for Decision Makers: EN
• Figures: EN
• Data pack: EN
• Presentation: EN
• Press releases: EN | DE | ES | FR | PT | ZH | JA | KO | EL | ID | VI | TR
• Country fact sheets: Argentina EN, ES | Australia EN | Brazil EN, PT | Canada EN | Chile EN, ES | China EN, ZH | France FR, EN | Germany DE, EN| Indonesia EN, ID | Japan EN, JA | Mexico EN, ES | Nigeria EN | Republic of Korea EN, KO |  South Africa EN | Spain ES, EN| Turkey TR, EN | United Kingdom EN | USA EN | Vietnam EN, VI​​

In May 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. The IEA describes this report as "the world’s first comprehensive study of how to transition to a net zero energy system by 2050 while ensuring stable and affordable energy supplies, providing universal energy access, and enabling robust economic growth."

The report addresses the major gap between governmental pledges of action and the urgent need to reduce the polluting greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change. The IEA notes that current pledges by governments to achieve net-zero emissions over the coming decades, even if fully achieved, "fall well short of what is required to bring global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and give the world an even chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C."

The Net Zero Energy (NZE) report sets out a pathway to "a clean, dynamic and resilient energy economy dominated by renewables like solar and wind instead of fossil fuels." Specifically, the share of renewables in total  electricity generation globally increases from 29% in 2020 to over 60% in 2030 and to nearly 90% in  2050.

The report envisions that by 2050, "the energy world looks completely different. Global energy demand is around 8% smaller than today, but it serves an economy more than twice as big and a population with 2 billion more people. Almost 90% of electricity generation comes from renewable sources, with wind and solar PV together accounting for almost 70%. Most of the remainder comes from nuclear power. Solar is the world’s single largest source of total energy supply. Fossil fuels fall from almost four-fifths of total energy supply today to slightly over one-fifth."

Significantly, the report finds that "the rapid drop in oil and natural gas demand in the NZE means that no fossil fuel exploration is required and no new oil and natural gas fields are required beyond those that have already  been approved for development. No new coal mines or mine extensions are required either." This finding reinforces calls from Indigenous and civil society organizations to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

While solar would grow to become the single largest source of total energy supply, other sources are expected to grow as well. For example, hydropower as a source of electricity is projected to nearly double by 2050, but the report does not address the environmental and human rights impacts of large dams in sensitive ecosystems such as the Amazon, the health of which are essential to climate stability. 

Achieving the goals set forth in the report will require not only rapid deployment of existing technologies, e.g., wind, solar, energy efficiency systems, and electric vehicles, but also rapid innovation and deployment of new technologies, e.g., advanced batteries, hydrogen electrolysis, and carbon capture.

Although other emissions reductions pathways have been published, this report has received a great deal of attention because the IEA has historically reflected a fossil-fuels oriented perspective. Hence, this report "[gives] industry credence to the idea it is possible to essentially eliminate emissions from the world’s energy system in the next three decades."

US President Joe Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and others, convened a virtual Leaders Summit on Climate in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 2021 and April 23, 2021. Leaders of forty nations participated in the summit to "to rally the world in tackling the climate crisis and meeting the demands of science." A link to the agenda and participants is here. 

According to the White House summary, the following commitments were made by leaders of countries in the Americas.

• Argentina will strengthen its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), deploy more renewables, reduce methane emissions, and end illegal deforestation.
• Brazil committed to achieve net zero by 2050, end illegal deforestation by 2030, and double funding for deforestation enforcement. (However, there are significant concerns about President Jair Bolsonaro's commitment to action, given his government's refusal to enforce environmental laws and hostility to Amazonian Indigenous peoples - see civil society reactions here and here.)
• Canada will strengthen its NDC to a 40-45% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030, a significant increase over its previous target to reduce emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.
• The United States announced a new target to achieve a 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution by 2030.

A roundup published by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), ​Latin America at the Leaders Summit on Climate, noted: "The countries of Latin America in attendance—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico—displayed a broad range of ambition... [S]ome countries demonstrated their willingness to be climate action leaders while others seemed intent on cementing their position as climate laggards."

An example of climate leadership was Chile's President Sebastián Piñera, who according to the NRDC report: "stated that Chile was determined to have a significant and positive impact in the fight against climate change. He highlighted that Chile’s vast renewable energy sources would allow it to decarbonize its energy matrix by 2040, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and become the most efficient green hydrogen producer in the world 'thus helping other countries to decarbonize their own energy matrix.'"

The Summit's discussion on nature-based solutions, hosted by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, "addressed how achieving net zero by 2050 is not possible without natural climate solutions, such as stopping deforestation and the loss of wetlands and restoring marine and terrestrial ecosystems." According to the White House summary: "Costa Rica underlined its co-leadership of the High-Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and the intention to have 30% of its ocean under protection by 2022; [and] Peru highlighted that more than a fifth of its NDC measures are associated with nature-based solutions." 

Clean energy and enabling technologies were the focus of Session 4 of the Summit ("Unleashing Climate Innovation”), which "explored the critical innovations needed to speed net-zero transitions around the world and highlighted the efforts of governments, the private sector, and civil society in bringing new and improved technologies to market."  

Based on a new analysis of ‘energy transition investment’ conducted by BloombergNEF (BNEF), the world invested $501.3 billion in decarbonization technologies in 2020.

BNEF's analysis shows that:

• Global investment in new renewable energy capacity (excluding hydro > 50MW) totaled $303.5 billion, an increase of 2% over 2019.
• Global investment in electric vehicles and associated charging infrastructure totaled $139 billion, an increase of 28% over 2019 and a new record.
• Other investment areas included: energy-efficient heat pumps ($50.8 billion), stationary energy storage technologies ($3.6 billion), carbon capture and storage ($3 billion), and hydrogen ($1.5 billion). 

Albert Cheung, head of analysis at BNEF, said: “Our figures show that the world has reached half a trillion dollars a year in its investment to decarbonize the energy system. Clean power generation and electric transport are seeing heavy inflows, but need to see further increases in spending as costs fall. Technologies such as electric heat, CCS and hydrogen are only attracting a fraction of the investment they will need in the 2020s to help bring emissions under control. We need to be talking about trillions per year if we are to meet climate goals.”
​
Jon Moore, chief executive of BNEF, said: “The coronavirus pandemic has held back progress on some projects, but overall investment in wind and solar has been robust and electric vehicle sales jumped more than expected. Policy ambition is clearly rising as more countries and businesses commit to net-zero targets, and green stimulus programs are starting to make their presence felt. Some 54% of 2016 emissions are now under some form of net-zero commitment, up from 34% at the start of last year. This should drive increasing investment in the coming years.”

Charts illustrating the trends in energy transition investment are available via the following link. 

In January 2021, Jim Williams, Professor at the University of San Francisco, and Director of the Sustainable Development Solution Network's Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP), along with energy modeling experts from Evolved Energy Research and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, published Carbon-Neutral Pathways for the United States in the journal AGU Advances. 

This study describes multiple possible pathways for the U.S. to reach net- zero and net-negative CO2 emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and demonstrates that "the U.S. can reach zero net CO2 emissions from energy and industry in 2050 at a net cost of 0.2-1.2% of GDP, not counting the benefits of avoiding damages from climate change or the health benefits from improved air quality," according to the publication announcement.

The announcement also states: "All pathways employed four basic strategies: energy efficiency, decarbonized electricity, electrification, and capturing carbon. Least cost pathways were based on >80% wind and solar electricity plus limited thermal generation for reliability. A 100% renewable primary energy system is feasible at somewhat higher cost and land use ... The actions required in the next 10 years are known with high confidence and align with those found in other recent work, including Princeton’s Net Zero America Project. The highest-priority near-term actions are similar across all the modeled pathways and have clear quantitative benchmarks for policy:

• Renewables buildout (>500 GW total wind and solar capacity by 2030)
• Coal retirement (<1% of total generation by 2030)
• Maintaining current nuclear and natural gas capacity
• Electrification of light-duty vehicles (EVs > 50% of LDV sales by 2030) and buildings (heat pumps >50% of residential HVAC sales by 2030).​"

​The link to the full publication is here.