Policies and sustainable energy transition in the global environment: Challenges for Latin America

Energy demands and increasing populations require strategies to reduce our dependence on petroleum products. Therefore, designing public policies is essential to achieve a sustainable energy transition. The present study sought, first, to characterize the energy supply at the global level and in the most innovative economies (Switzerland, United States, Sweden, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Germany, Finland, Denmark) (1971–2021) to explain the existing dynamics in Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Argentina), and second, to evaluate the patterns and variables associated with energy supply (coal, peat, and oil sale; crude, NGL and feedstocks; electricity; heat; natural gas; nuclear; oil products; renewables and waste; total) in selected countries and years to assess (2014–2021) how they have managed their energy policies. For this purpose, different Machine Learning tools (unsupervised t-SNE method - t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding algorithm) and multivariate statistics (Principal Component Analysis - PCA) were used. Among the most important results were identifying and grouping different economies according to their energy supply patterns and identifying the relationship between the energy sources and their association with different countries. One of the main conclusions is that energy supply patterns are determined by the type of economy and the group of countries being compared, as well as by population size, energy sources, and energy demand. Although Latin America and the Caribbean have progressed toward using renewable and waste-based energies, these results are heterogeneous, and countries such as Mexico, still dependent on oil and natural gas, will have to increase their efforts to transition toward sustainability. This analysis allowed for a first approach to understanding the politics of the energy transition in Latin America compared to other economies. Additionally, we reflected on different public policy guidelines to promote a sustainable energy transition in the region.