ABSTRACT
Latin American social movements have globally been at the forefront of resisting fossil fuel projects and developing arguments and approaches to leave fossil fuels underground. This chapter analyses the LFFU arguments and approaches of these bottom-up actors in Ecuador and other Latin American countries. From the perspective of the politics of ideas, the chapter looks into the ways in which bottom-up actors operating in countries with major development challenges envision LFFU and an energy transition, and how they deal with dominant imaginaries of fossil fuels as a source of development. Since the turn of the century, social mobilization for LFFU in Latin America has strengthened and connected to various struggles for social and environmental justice. Agendas of various civil society actors come together: environmental protection, territorial rights, women’s rights, protecting land and water for agriculture, and countering unsafe living and working conditions. The analysis shows that Latin American LFFU proposals are linked to broader processes for change, including alternative views on development and rights.
