The VI Energy Week will promote decarbonization processes in Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean are moving, through different energy transitions, towards a carbon-neutral energy system by the middle of the 21st century. The energy transition is not a one-dimensional issue of infrastructure change, it must be supported by a national commitment and must be developed in parallel with actions aimed at increasing the participation of renewable energies in the energy matrix and policies that reduce energy consumption and promote energy efficiency in all consumer sectors.

The number of countries around the world that are announcing carbon neutrality targets for the coming decades continues to grow. Ambitions to reduce emissions are growing globally and Latin America and the Caribbean must not be the exception. Various international organizations are working on carbon-free energy scenarios for 2050.

Energy transitions have the same objective, but different possible paths and the path chosen will depend on the availability of resources, internal conditions (technical, financial, political, etc.), the possibility of integration, and financial resources.

Each country or region will walk a path towards cleaner and more flexible energy systems. Economies rich in capital and with few fossil-based natural resources will advance faster in their transition than economies with fewer capital resources or those that still possess vast fossil-based energy resources such as coal, oil, or natural gas. The fact of going through transitions does not necessarily imply abandoning the energy sources of the past, they may continue to be present in the consumption matrix, although they will gradually lose relative importance.

In this context, the Energy Week, whose VI edition will be held from November 17-24, 2021, organized by the Latin American Energy Organization (Olade) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in virtual modality, seeks to encourage the regional debate on the progress of the energy transition processes and how the region should face these processes, what will be the role of traditional energy sources and how they will be replaced by clean renewable energies (conventional and non-conventional). We will further explore the concept of just transitions and whether they should be regional, subregional or local in nature.

Finally, we will seek to delve into issues such as the importance of technological innovation, new energy vectors such as green hydrogen, investments (public and private) in clean technologies in a post-pandemic context, and the increasingly important role of new basic inputs for energy transitions: critical minerals, many of which are present in the countries of our region.

The VI Energy Week constitutes an important platform to promote the ambition of the energy transition in Latin America and the Caribbean. Regional stakeholders will showcase the actions taken to achieve decarbonization pathways in their various fields of action.

The VI Energy Week will focus on 4 key areas:

– Innovation in the energy sector – Sustainable energy development: access to energy, energy efficiency, renewability – Gender and energy – Energy integration

Additionally, the following will be developed:

– Inter-Agency Dialogue – LVI Council of Experts – LI Meeting of Ministers with the Ministerial Political Dialogue.

Register here: https://semanadelaenergia.olade.org/

Access to the sessions of the Energy Week is open, except for the Council of Experts and the Meeting of Ministers.

This encounter has filled us with pride and satisfaction since we have received great acceptance in previous years with the participation of more than 700 attendees and 56 participating companies. Results that motivate us and commit us more and more to carry out this type of event for the benefit of our region.

Main speakers

The VI Energy Week will be attended by representatives of the governments of the 27 Olade Member Countries and will feature as keynote speakers: Olade’s Executive Secretary, Alfonso Blanco; the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa; the Chief of the Energy Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ariel Yépez; representatives of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), among other leading authorities in the sector.