When it comes to fallout from climate change, perhaps no one has had it worse than residents of Latin America. Nations in the region have been seeing rising number of natural disasters such as deadly storms, floods, and droughts in the past couple of years. Realizing how grave it is, they have invested heavily in renewable energy – one method that is being leveraged by most nations to battle the highly polluting fossil-fuel used mostly in electricity generation.

Such an initiative has made Latin America the new leader in renewable energy. Its desire for a greener world was abundantly evident at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23), where representatives of most nations talked of charting strategies to use renewable energy big time and bring down greenhouse emissions drastically.

Brazil and Chile Spend Massive Amounts in Generating Renewables

Latin American nations of Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile are already on course to replace fossil power with renewables by pouring money into solar and wind energy plants. Brazil, for example, funneled US$7.1 bn in renewables in 2015 in order to switch to a low-carbon economy. Chile, on the other hand, is building a massive photovoltaics plant, called El Romero, which can electrify almost 240,000 Chilean homes! Chile is also making renewables commercial as the Google office in the nation uses only solar energy for its electricity needs.

At COP23, Ecuador and Colombia were even awarded for their major initiatives. Besides, prominent Latin American cities of Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Quito, Mexico City, and Santiago de Chile also partook in global alliances among 25 global cities, in which they pledged to mitigate the impact of climate change through various initiatives and projects.