The inclusion of ECLAC as a technical support organization for OLADE’s Regional Energy Planning Council is a recognition of ECLAC’s prestige and technical capacity in regional energy planning. This new body will allow the region to strengthen its institutional capacities in energy planning processes.
OLADE annually hosts Energy Week, one of the most prominent gatherings in the energy sector in Latin America and the Caribbean, promoting dialogue and knowledge exchange among public and private sector actors from the region. This event provides a platform for experts, leaders, and authorities to share experiences, fostering the development and transformation of the energy sector.
ECLAC was invited to participate in various activities. In the Master Session on the creation of the Regional Planning Council, Martín Abeles, Director of ECLAC’s Natural Resources Division, noted that the energy transition opens a window of opportunity and can serve as a catalyst for the region’s productive transformation if energy planning is systematically linked to productive development policies. In his address, the ECLAC representative highlighted the importance of strengthening the technical, operational, political, and forward-looking institutional capacities of states in the region for this agenda. He also offered ECLAC's experience in coordinating the Regional Forum of Energy Planners for Latin America and the Caribbean to the participating countries.
In the panel on "Financing in the Energy Sector," Marina Gil, an economist from the same ECLAC Division, presented some findings from ECLAC’s energy forecasting exercises (published as part of the document for ECLAC's fortieth session: Latin America and the Caribbean and the Development Traps: Essential Transformations and How to Manage Them). She highlighted how energy integration produces significant operational efficiencies, reduces investment and operational costs, and lowers greenhouse gas emissions, while also alerting about the insufficient renewable energy investment in the region.
Finally, in the panel on "Critical Minerals for Energy Transitions," Rafael Poveda, a consultant from the same Division, reflected on policies aimed at promoting new production linkages in the critical minerals value chain for the energy transition (such as lithium and copper) and emphasized the importance of regional dialogue spaces. In this context, he highlighted the role of the Permanent Forum for Technical Dialogue on Innovation, Technological Development, and Value-Added Lithium for the countries in the Lithium Triangle and Mexico, coordinated by ECLAC. This platform promotes the exchange of experiences among producing countries.
Within the framework of Energy Week, ECLAC authorities held bilateral meetings with the Minister of Energy and Mines of the Dominican Republic, Joel Adrián Santos Echavarría; the Minister of Mines and Energy of Colombia, Andrés Camacho Morales; the Secretary of Energy of Panama, Juan Manuel Urriola; the Deputy Minister of Renewable Energies of Bolivia, Ronald Alberto Veizaga Baqueros; and the Deputy Minister of Energy of Honduras, Tomás Rodriguez. These meetings reviewed various technical assistance activities that ECLAC is carrying out with each country, adjusting details for their participation in the Regional Energy Transition Dialogues, which will take place from November 26 to 29, 2024, in Guatemala.
