Planning for peak oil: learning from Cuba’s ‘special period’

It is against recent experiences of proliferative consumption of the earth’s resources that planners and politicians must confront the challenge of Peak Oil over the coming years. With so few examples of Peak Oil available worldwide, this paper explores the realities of this in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989; the so-called Special Period, which decimated the country’s imports of energy, food, and other vital supplies. Drawing on primary research collected in Cuba during 2008, this paper examines the policy responses implemented by Cuba in the field of transport, spatial planning, agriculture, and energy, in order to stimulate debate about how western countries and cities might respond to future losses of global resources. Despite the Cuban situation being politically different from other countries, and the loss of resources during the Special Period more abrupt and unplanned, it is argued that there is still considerable scope for a wider application of the concepts to other towns and cities, if not countries and cultures.