Introduction

This introduction frames the global energy transition as a profoundly political reconfiguration of the world economy rather than a merely technical shift. Decarbonization multiplies demand for critical minerals and green infrastructures, reorganizing production networks, trade, finance, and geopolitics while reactivating classic dilemmas of dependency and unequal specialization. Latin America sits at the crossroads: exceptionally endowed with lithium, copper, hydrogen potential, and biofuels, the region is indispensable to post-fossil pathways yet risks deepening extractivist models, volatility, ecological degradation, and social conflict. We conceptualize the transition as a contested process of rent creation, capture, and use, in which domestic coalitions and global asymmetries determine who benefits and who bears the costs. Bridging debates on structuralism, dependency, neo-/green extractivism, and new industrial policy, this volume examines whether emerging “green rents” can be governed to drive diversification, technological upgrading, and inclusion—or whether they entrench a decarbonization consensus marked by corporate capture and energy colonialism. The chapters map winners and losers, fiscal and distributional stakes, and the socio-ecological struggles that will shape Latin America’s development trajectories in the post-fossil age.