ABSTRACT
Recent events in Cuba and Venezuela illustrate how energy transitions to post-carbon futures, ones that no longer emit carbon into the atmosphere, risk replicating existing inequalities. They also show how energy transitions may be understood as shifts in sociopolitical energy regimes and sequences of overdetermined and ultimately reversible changes in state, society, and nature dynamics rather than technical adjustments to existing supply chains. This chapter considers the Special Period in Times of Peace in Cuba (the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union) and Venezuela’s overlapping crises since 2014 as sequences of reactive decarbonization. It does so by highlighting the challenge and necessity of pursuing more sustainable and just futures in the course of transitioning beyond contemporary climate crises.
