Latin America must solve regulatory obstacles, seek electrical interconnection and improve the structuring of renewable energy projects to attract about 200,000 million dollars per year required by the region in that sector, multilateral banks directors said on Tuesday.
Latin America invests about 3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in energy infrastructure, below 5% of GDP on average that Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa allocated, according to World Bank figures.
While companies and funds have the region in their radar, they are insufficient to support governments to ensure the viability of projects, multilateral banks agreed in an event on financing for energy transition, organized in Bogotá by the community of Latin American and Caribbean states (CELAC).
“The solution is in politics, because money is not missing,” said Félix Fernández, director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the General Directorate of International Associations of the European Union (DG Inca). “But the money goes where he is accompanied to go.”
Fernández mentioned as an example that European Union companies have projected 20,000 million dollars of renewable energy investment in Colombia and recalled that 88% of the renewable generation connected to the system in the South American country is produced by companies in the European Union.
“A priority action is (…) the creation of an adequate investment climate, having robust planning, Robust Policies and Regulation Mark, a series of important things, bureaucracies or efficient administrative systems,” said Gabriela Elizondo, manager of the World Bank Energy Management Program Manager.
For Andrés Rebolledo, executive secretary of the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE), it is necessary to think of a long -term planning in the field of electrical interconnection, beyond the political cycles of each country, to make the projects attractive.
“Political periods are less than five or six years old and these projects have other magnification,” he said. “Our region can consolidate its leadership in sustainable energy solutions, but for this we must create the conditions with adequate regulatory frameworks, investment and a good public and private balance,” he concluded.
Latin America invests about 3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in energy infrastructure, below 5% of GDP on average that Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa allocated, according to World Bank figures.
