ABSTRACT
The search for solutions to global environmental change has been a concern of the Cuban State and government since the early years of the revolutionary process. Fact that is evidenced in the environmental projection, through the conception of public policies aimed at reversing its deterioration and promoting sustainable practices from the ecological, economic, social and cultural aspects, even in difficult contexts such as the well-known Special Period and the current pandemic generated by the Covid-19. The country's bets are not only made from a centralized and vertical approach, which respond to national and international scenarios and specific situations, but also through self-managed processes from civil society where horizontality and multi-actor dialogue prevail in in order to achieve a system based on social and environmental justice that articulates multiple institutions and collective subjects. The following work, from a qualitative and quantitative methodology, addresses the concrete impacts and the transformative capacity of the public policies outlined by the country, from the revolutionary triumph to the context of the pandemic in terms of energy sovereignty, sustainable agriculture and climate change. Analysis that is enriched with the visibility of projects created from civil society in pursuit of achieving the necessary eco-social transformation. Imbrication that provides an overview of the progress and challenges of public policies in conjunction with projects promoted by civil society in environmental matters, and has the novelty of interrelating processes aimed at reversing environmental conditions framed within dissimilar historical contexts, thus reflecting the broad struggle in the face of global environmental change within the revolutionary process.
ABSTRACT
The global COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a justice crisis. It also brings to light multiple ongoing, underlying social crises. The COVID-19 crisis is actively revealing crises of energy sovereignty in at least four ways. First, there are many whose access to basic health services is compromised because of the lack of energy services necessary to provide these services. Second, some people are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of exposure to environmental pollution associated with energy production. Third, energy services are vital to human wellbeing, yet access to energy services is largely organized as a consumer good. The loss of stable income precipitated by COVID-19 may therefore mean that many lose reliable access to essential energy services. Fourth, the COVID-19 crisis has created a window of opportunity for corporate interests to engage in aggressive pursuit of energy agendas that perpetuate carbon intensive and corporate controlled energy systems, which illuminates the ongoing procedural injustices of energy decision making. These four related crises demonstrate why energy sovereignty is essential for a just energy future. Energy sovereignty is defined as the right for communities, rather than corporate interests, to control access to and decision making regarding the sources, scales, and forms of ownership characterizing access to energy services. Energy sovereignty is a critical component in the design of a post-COVID-19 energy system that is capable of being resilient to future shocks without exacerbating injustices that are killing the most vulnerable among us.