Venezuela, Oil and Climate Change: Overcoming Nostalgia

Abstract

The severity of the Venezuelan recession – said to be the biggest in the history of the Western hemisphere – and the need for urgent humanitarian attention, might prompt overlooking the environmental impact of a fossil fuel-led economic recovery. Over the past 20 years, economic downturns, bad governance, gross mismanagement, and corruption have submerged Venezuela in unprecedented levels of social and political human rights violations, urging large sectors of the population to demand a shift in political direction. On the occurrence of a regime change, new political leadership will be pressured to respond quickly to the dire social and economic crises. To this end, experts across the political spectrum have insisted economic recovery be centered on reviving the oil and gas industry, leaving the possibility of an economy independent of the extractive industries largely uninspected. As global awareness of the environmental footprint of the oil business continues to intensify, assumptions about the constant demand and availability of such resource will be contested. This will hugely affect Venezuela, a country whose economy has been traditionally dependent on the extractive industries, particularly oil. Understanding the grim situation the country faces, leaves it at a very vulnerable crossroad. By using Bendell’s Deep Adaptation Agenda, this chapter will explore options available for Venezuela to recover and eventually thrive while leaving the oil under the ground.