27 Countries Participate in Olade Meeting in Chile

Ministers and other high-level authorities from 27 countries are participating today in Chile in a meeting of the Latin American Energy Organization (Olade), the most important sectoral event at the regional level.

The meeting is part of Energy Week, which began on September 30 and concludes tomorrow. During the event, strategic guidelines will be defined to advance sustainable development, decarbonization, pathways toward clean and resilient systems, and regional integration.

During the opening ceremony, Chilean President Gabriel Boric emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation ties on an issue critical to the present and future of our nations.

"Energy is to the 21st century what trains were to the 19th. Energy is perhaps the most important condition for the development of our countries," he said.

Boric highlighted Chile's advances in this sector, such as the Rural Solar Water initiative, the Better School program, the Horizonte Wind Park, the Community Solar Park project, and the development of green hydrogen. In Chile, nearly 70 percent of electricity now comes from clean sources, with the goal of achieving a 100 percent renewable grid by 2050.

Experts, sector leaders, and business representatives are participating in Energy Week, which is being held in this country for the first time.

"Energy has ceased to be a sectoral issue and has become the transversal axis that defines the course of our economies, the stability of our societies, and the hope of future generations," said the executive secretary of Olade, Chilean Andrés Rebolledo.

He noted that Latin America and the Caribbean is the greenest region in the world, producing most of its electricity from renewable sources, in addition to having strategic production of critical minerals.

"The energy transition is not a distant goal; it is an urgent task that demands leadership and brave decisions," he stated.

Rebolledo was re-elected for another three-year term to lead Olade, an organization created over half a century ago.