Encuentro Latinoamericano CELA 2023
“Latin America’s challenges in the 21st century”, 11th -12th July 2023
Latin America is facing enormous challenges. On the one hand, a new boom in “green” raw materials such as hydrogen, copper, and lithium is already emerging. Against the backdrop of the decarbonisation of the global economy and the current Ukraine war, this trend seems to be deepening. On the other hand, new policies are needed to address other old and current problems such as the huge social inequality in the region.
The region has many of the raw materials that are important for global sustainability strategies and produces a significant share of the world’s staple foods. The danger of deepening extractivism, i.e. a development model based on the export of raw materials, is more relevant than ever. One of the most important challenges of Latin America today is to link this extractivism with the requirements of sustainability and to use it as a transmission belt for a socio-ecological transformation.
With this background, the conference discusses current challenges as well as possibilities and limits of extractivism and sustainability in Latin America, and draws conclusions both for other world regions such as the Maghreb and methodological lessons for cross-area research.
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