Towards the energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean is the name of the initiative presented by 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru) who committed to contribute to achieve the regional goal of 70% renewable energy by 2030.
As part of this resolution, last Friday, September 11, 2020, Colombia, Costa Rica and Chile, as co-leaders of this initiative, organized a webinar on the experiences and perspectives in relation to this ambitious goal, event to which the Executive Secretary of OLACDE, Alfonso Blanco, was invited. He stated that for the Organization this initiative will be very important since renewable energies in the region have a lot of potential.
“The region has 25% renewable energies as primary energy, it is the highest percentage in the energy matrix compared to the rest of the world. However, our region, during the last decades, did not incorporate renewable energies at the same rate as the increase in electricity demand. And to meet this demand, the region had to incorporate technologies that use fossil fuels,” said the Executive Secretary, Alfonso Blanco.
To which he added that it is an important issue in the region since the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation must be reduced. He also mentioned that the countries of the region have marked differences as there are countries that have more than 90% of the use of renewable sources in electricity generation and other countries that have a much lower percentage of renewable energy.
“We must identify and work on specific strategies to be able to overcome the existing barriers in the region” Executive Secretary of OLACDE, Alfonso Blanco.
Regarding the development of the initiative towards the energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Secretary informed that OLACDE has all the information to have a good idea about the progress of the incorporation of renewable energies in the energy matrix, and that he supports this initiative since its inception and will continue to do so to obtain the support of the countries.
OLACDE and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have resolved to support the initiative. OLACDE has provided data and discussion platforms to initiate the development of a work plan for the implementation of this agreement, assuming technical coordination as part of its expertise.
Among the speakers were the Vice Minister of Energy of Colombia, Miguel Lotero; the Vice Minister of Energy of Costa Rica, Rolando Castro; the Undersecretary of Energy of Chile, Francisco López and the Vice Minister of Electricity of Peru, Miguel Juan Révolo and Ariel Yépez, Chief of the IDB’s Energy Division.
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