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The Low-Carbon Contradiction

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In the pursuit of socialism, Cuba became Latin America’s most oil-dependent economy. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the country lost 86 percent of its crude oil supplies, resulting in a severe en...
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  • 29 August 2023
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In the pursuit of socialism, Cuba became Latin America’s most oil-dependent economy. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the country lost 86 percent of its crude oil supplies, resulting in a severe energy crisis. In the face of this shock, Cuba started to develop a low-carbon economy based on economic and social reform rather than high-tech innovation. The Low-Carbon Contradiction examines this period of rapid low-carbon energy transition, which many have described as a “Cuban miracle” or even a real-life case of successful “degrowth.” Working with original research from inside households, workplaces, universities, and government offices, Gustav Cederlöf retells the history of the Cuban Revolution as one of profound environmental and infrastructural change. In doing so, he opens up new questions about energy transitions, their politics, and the conditions of a socially just low-carbon future. The Cuban experience shows how a society can transform itself while rapidly cutting carbon emissions in the search for sustainability.
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Price: $95.00
Pages: 260
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Series: Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics
Publication Date: 29 August 2023
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520393127
Format: Hardcover
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"Gustav Cederlöf’s book poses challenging questions about energy transition and energy justice from an often-overlooked Caribbean and socialist vantage point."

 “Cederlof demonstrates how mainstream narratives of energy transition tend to overlook how one country situates itself in the international political economy.” 
 

"Cederlöf ’s persuasive study of the Cuban example is not only valuable for those interested in Cuba but also a key contribution to the widening of the debate on energy transition and degrowth."

"This book provides a fresh angle within Cuba studies, in which discussions about energy (almost exclusively oil) have been tangential to a focus on Cold War–style geopolitics. It also engages with debates around energy politics, development studies, degrowth, and eco-socialism."

“Provides excellent descriptions of the series of technological and social changes that Cuba needed to install due to geopolitical changes.”



“Gustav Cederlöf deconstructs Cuba's energy pathway, providing unprecedented insight into a forced degrowth experience necessitating an energy transition. Cederlöf takes the reader on a journey through Cuba's revolutionary past and present, focusing on the changing energy imaginaries that have supported and legitimized Cuba's political economic projects to this day.”



“Gustaf Cederlof's The Low-Carbon Contradiction presents a unique view on energy transitions from a Caribbean island’s socialist perspective. . . . The book thereby invites us to reconsider the term ‘energy transition’, beautifully showing its historical entanglements in Cuba, the subject positions it produces and/or modifies, as well as the state-citizen relationships it intervenes in.”
 



“A rich account of what the Cuban experience can tell us about some of today's most pressing questions vis-à-vis energy justice and decarbonisation, the impacts of cross-sectoral energy efficiency policies and energy path dependencies in the world economy.”
 

Gustav Cederlöf is Associate Senior Lecturer in Human Ecology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Contents

List of Illustrations and Table 
Preface 
Acronyms 

Introduction 
1. Against the Energy Empire 
2. Electrification or Death 
3. Blackout 
4. Socialist Redistribution and Autonomous Infrastructure 
5. The Energy Revolution 
Conclusion: Energy Transitions and Infrastructural Form 

Notes 
Bibliography 
Index