Climate Politics in Latin America: The Cases of Chile and Mexico

Abstract

This paper focuses on climate coalitions and commitments in the Global South by comparing the cases of two Latin American countries, Chile and Mexico. Chile, once a laggard, emerged as a regional leader in climate policy in the early 2020s, while Mexico, a pioneer until the early 2010s, experienced a backlash and retreated. How can we make sense of these diverging trajectories? How and why do climate commitments emerge? This paper argues that robust commitments are only possible when driven by a bundled narrative that facilitates the formation of a broad coalition. Such a coalition, in turn, crafts and advances the climate narrative, as demonstrated by the Chilean case. By exploring the interplay between climate narrative creation and coalition-building, the paper underscores climate coalitions' fragile and often precarious nature in the Global South. It seeks to contribute to the existing knowledge on climate policy and the formation of climate coalitions, particularly in the Global South, where climate policy challenges are often more intensified than in the Global North.