Energy sovereignty, sustainable agriculture and climate change in Cuba: between public policies and civil society projects from 1959 to the pandemic stage

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.