Toward Inclusive Green Development in Latin America

Latin American countries confront a triple challenge to development: growth-reducing structural change, limited social inclusion, and global warming. To address these challenges, we propose a development strategy with a green developmental state as the driver and broadly defined industrial policies at the core. We investigate the opportunities and challenges of inclusive green development (IGD) for 11 resource-rich Latin American countries. At the current juncture, two factors greatly facilitate the pursuit of such a strategy: (1) the global green transition which increases the demand for critical minerals and (2) the renewed legitimization of industrial policies in the Global North. In light of the urgency for action, limited financial resources, and the need for broad coalitions supporting IGD, governments have to leverage the interconnectivities among the three IGD goals to achieve double- and triple-win outcomes. While the space for action at the national level varies, an active and coordinated non-alignment strategy among Latin American governments would strengthen their ability to navigate the turbulent waters of strategic competition between great powers.