Argentina Is Torn Between Its Shale Dream and Climate Goals
Natural gas fracking could be its ticket out of a years-long economic crisis, but it jeopardizes a promise to wipe out emissions by 2050.
A gas drilling rig in the Vaca Muerta formation.
Photographer: Emiliano Lasalvia/AFP/Getty ImagesPresident Alberto Fernandez took to a makeshift stage in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale deposit in October to announce the nation was doubling down on fossil fuels. “Today we are relaunching the oil and gas economy,” he declared, starting with $5 billion of government subsidies.
Two months later, he had a different message for global leaders at the United Nations’ Climate Ambition Summit. Argentina had “true conviction” about wiping out its net emissions of greenhouse gases by mid-century, he said. To get there, it will have to get a fifth of its energy from renewables by 2025, up from about 10% now.