The tightened siege on Cuba by the US is an attack on one of the world’s most sustainable societies by one of the least, and one that is trying to lead a charge towards climate catastrophe because, as Marco Rubio put it in his address to the Munich Security Conference, “we are not afraid of climate change”; as if we could deal with the consequences of climate breakdown by being macho about it.

• Cuba has a population of 10.9 million people, less than a thirtieth of that of the United States. 
• It has a per capita carbon footprint of 2.23 tonnes, less than half of the global average of 4.7 tonnes and a sixth that of the United States; not simply because it has a lower per capita income, but because its society is more organised around sustainability. Which is also why, in 2025, with a per capita income an eighth that of the US, life expectancy, at 79.49, was almost half a year longer. 
• It is spending $129 million on its military this year, an 8 thousandth of the 2026 US military budget. 

Yet Donald Trump poses it as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States. This is, as so many Trump statements are, an inversion of reality. The US has been an unusual and extraordinary threat to Cuba and its people since the first sanctions were imposed by President Eisenhower in 1960. This is not an aberration for the Global South. The Lancet estimated last year that the deaths caused by sanctions imposed around the world by the US and EU have killed 38 million people since 1970 – about half a million a year. But it is peculiarly long term: 65 years of relentless pressure, punctuated by military adventures like the Bay of Pigs, assassination plots and ruthless misinformation campaigns.

The current intensification of this siege, primarily focused on energy sources, having cut off 75% of its oil supplies in the last month, has had to be met by emergency measures. It is striking how many of these consolidate and accelerate Cuba’s path to sustainability; while seeking to protect the population as far as possible from the worst impacts and mobilise them to resist. 

Countries around the world that want to avoid a similar vulnerability to a US energy siege in future will be drawing the conclusion that the faster they move to renewable energy, the safer they will be.

In Energy Generation

• The program of installing large photovoltaic solar parks across the country to move towards a situation in which electricity supply can be guaranteed without fuel imports will be maintained. Until last year 83% of electricity was being generated by aging and unreliable oil fired power stations, supplied largely with oil from Venezuela and Mexico that the US has now shut off. Cuba itself only produces about a third of its needs and increases in local production can’t be qualitatively increased, while imports now allowed from the private sector will be important but relatively small scale. Cuba is nevertheless in the first stages of the rapid turn to solar energy that is also gaining momentum across the whole Global South. Last year 55 solar farms capable of generating 1200 MW were built with Chinese assistance. So far their peak generation has been 900MW, about 40% of peak demand. A further 37 solar farms are due to be completed by the end of 2028 to close the gap further. On a smaller scale, 22 wind turbines are being refurbished to generate another 30MW. This will dent the impact of the sanctions, but the sooner more can be built the better.
• At the same time progress is being made towards the installation of 20,000 off grid distributed solar housing systems, including panels and storage batteries including sales to health and education workers of 10,000 of these.
• The delivery and assembly of these systems will be streamlined to “give energy sustainability to 10,000 family centers in the country” and install 5,000 modules in remote communities. These are the last homes that are not connected to the grid; thereby achieving 100% electrification across Cuba.
• During this year another 5,000 systems will be delivered covering centres where the population receives social care, like nursing homes, children’ s homes and community centres.
• New incentives for renewable sources have been introduced so that people who generate electricity can sell it directly to third parties – another consumer, a company, an industry – not just the Electric Union.

Saving fuel 

• There will be a four day week from Monday to Thursday.
• Fuel sales will be monitored to ensure equitable supply.
• Street lights have had to be dimmed.
• Industry will focus on the manufacture, processing and supply of vital chemicals, like those needed to ensure water, oxygen and chlorine quality for the health system and some industrial processes.
• The tourist industry, essential to earning desperately needed foreign exchange, is being concentrated in hubs to save fuel.
• Cultural programming is being adjusted to encourage more local cultural activities in communities and the movement of amateur artists, and measures have been applied to reduce fuel expenditure to allow the National Baseball series, which is currently at the semi final stage, to conclude.
• Fuel will be prioritised to allow the operation of ports and airports to allow in food, fuels, and medical supplies. The transport of disconnected supplies are being grouped together and then moved to optimise fuel use.

Food production 

• Growing more food locally is crucial. There are plans to grow an additional 200,000 hectares of rice and some of these are already planted. Fuel allocation will be prioritised to make this possible.
• Planting a greater variety of crops is being encouraged as is urban and family farming. 
• Renewable energy sources will be used for irrigation and animal traction will be increased.
• Public transport is being reduced to bare essentials- connections between Havana and main provincial centres twice a day and routes in towns restructured.
• Some of the gaps are being filled by electric cycle rickshaws in all areas, which will be regulated by local authorities, as will prices charged by private carriers.

The impact of this siege is grim. With no fuel for rubbish collection, waste is piling up in the streets. The knock on effects of health, even with Cuba’s immensely impressive public health care system, can’t help but be severe. The US is also pressuring other countries to commit self harm by ending their agreements to employ Cuban doctors in their health care system. This earns Cuba foreign exchange but is also a massive contribution to the health and wellbeing of the countries concerned. 

The defiant words of the Deputy Prime Minister, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga: “We are not going to collapse because the Cuban people do not collapse and have demonstrated it throughout our history”  is a call for solidarity from friendly countries, trade unions and movements around the world, from anyone who does not want to see our world thrown backwards into a last frenzy of white racist fossil fuel imperialism of the sort so nakedly expressed by Marco Rubio in Munich. If you haven’t read this speech please do. It’s an eye opener. The climate movement should have no reservations about whose side it is on. 

Contact the Cuba Solidarity Campaign to see what you can do to help.

Paul Atkin

A lot of the information in this blog comes from an article from Cuba Debate, reporting on a round table discussing the measures being taken to resist US sanctions, which you can read in full here.