I. Panel I: Unlocking Latin America’s Energy Potential – Regional Integration, Renewability, and the Breakthrough of New Technologies in a Shifting Geopolitical Landscape

The first panel of the day focused on how the Latin American energy sector could leverage two key opportunities—regional energy integration and breakthrough clean technologies—to navigate geopolitical re-ordering and enable abundant, secure, and sustainable energy for the region. The panel contained a diversity of experience, drawing on speakers from government, private sector, and multilateral development banks.  

Representing a governmental perspective, the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE)’s Mijal Brady explained how Latin America is undergoing a clean energy-driven structural energy system transformation, yet is caught between U.S.-China competition, as both countries vie for the region’s mineral wealth. To progress forward, she underscored how energy integration, supply chain diversification, and industrial development were key as the region is subjected to a shifting international order. Brady presented energy integration as a promising-yet-underutilized tool that could bring energy stability to the region in an era of supply chain disruptions. She emphasized that governments need to be made aware of its benefits to incorporate it into their energy agendas.  

Turning to the multilateral development banks, Antonio Silveira (CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean) and Gabriela Elizondo (World Bank) offered their thoughts on how geopolitical and financial uncertainty could affect the region’s clean energy technology business environment. Silveira highlighted his view that projects in clean technology may be negatively impacted by uncertainty around interest changes, especially given many (e.g. clean hydrogen) do not yet have globally established markets. He further added that he expects CAF might need to provide financial security to hedge against an uncertain world. One solution posed by Silveira hinges on fostering regional regulatory and energy planning harmonization, which will lay the groundwork for energy integration and thus more energy security in the region.  

Elizondo reinforced how the U.S. government’s recent trade decisions cast much uncertainty onto the future yet emphasized how positive trends are converging in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to create significant potential for the region’s clean energy technology development. She highlighted Sheinbaum’s Plan México as an example of a policy bundle that integrates climate, trade, energy, and industrial policy to lay the groundwork for a green industrial base. However, for Elizondo, the crucial next step is to stimulate clean technology manufacturing, such as with biofuels or electric vehicles (EVs), to integrate the region into the global technology revolution. Energy integration is a key component of her proposed action plan, as is World Bank support of nascent clean technology supply chains.  

Finally, Juan Ignacio Rubiolo from AES Corporation emphasized his view of how much LAC stands to benefit geopolitical realignment, and how furthering energy integration is a key goal to secure maximum benefits. In his view, Latin America’s abundant critical minerals and optimal solar and wind energy generation capacity will cause value production currently produced in China to move to LAC. However, to realize these benefits, the region needs to advance energy cooperation to spread these benefits evenly across the region and ensure sustainable, affordable, and reliable energy in every market.  

II. Panel II: Geopolitical Shifts and Their Impact on Climate Action in the Americas Leading Up to COP30

The second panel aimed to examine the ongoing global geopolitical world re-ordering and its effect on climate action in the Americas, using the upcoming COP 30 in Brazil as a focal point. The panel sought to analyze the current state of play in the Americas surrounding climate action, what the region and world could expect from COP 30, and what climate action in the Americas could need to progress in a changing political order.

First, Brazil expert Mark Langevin offered his perspective on what the world could expect from COP 30 and how Brazil might use its influence to reboot global climate discussions. He first gave his perspective on how Brazil has the capacity to effect significant climate-smart change due to its previous experience with securing development financing and its decision to include civil society in this COP. Langevin highlighted how Brazil’s experience with securing finance for development has enabled the country to negotiate the internationally funded Tropical Forests Forever fund, and that securing similar climate finance agreements will be at the top of the agenda. While Brazil will be primarily preoccupied with these agenda items, Langevin was furthermore optimistic that this COP’s openness to civil society organizations and the pressure such groups will exert will enable this COP to plan for the displacement of fossil fuels.

Liliana Díaz from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) additionally offered specific insights on Article 6- the article of the Paris Agreement establishing voluntary international carbon markets—emphasizing her optimism and the promise Article 6 posed for LAC. She underscored that Article 6 offers economic and climate benefits to Latin American countries, many of which are rich in carbon sequestration potential, as many other countries globally cannot mitigate carbon emissions domestically. She utilized Guyana as a concrete example, given that the country monetized its dense forest coverage as a carbon mitigation credit source. However, even more significantly, the country remains committed to low-carbon development even in the face of their recent oil-extraction windfall and redistributes profits to indigenous communities to empower them to form their own, locally informed sustainability plans. She posed this as a framework to be replicated across LAC and evidence that Article 6 can and will benefit Latin America.

Turning to the US, Yale University’s Paul Simons analyzed U.S. influence on Latin American climate action, citing that, pragmatically, the region stands to benefit in the short-term from increased or decreased climate leadership from the US. While the US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement again, its effects on the region are too early to be calculated. Assuming such a move signals increased U.S. interest in importing fossil fuels, the region’s vast reserves will serve to enrich countries, especially in a Trump administration where key members (Rubio, Claver-Carone) have ties to Latin America. On the other hand, if world pressure increases on countries to decarbonize, the region could receive climate finance funds under Brazil’s regional leadership. However, under either scenario, the region needs carefully navigate U.S.-China competition to secure maximum benefits from both countries.

Next, Alan Sakar clarified what Latin America could do to be an attractive climate finance destination. Noting that energy and critical minerals demand is rising against a backdrop of outdated grid infrastructure and diversification of generation sources, Sakar emphasized that the region must have institutions, law, and finance working in tandem to de-risk investments, improve returns, and ultimately attract investors. Institutions must foster regulatory certainty, transparency, and long-term planning across the region to enable investor confidence. Similarly, regional law must standardize contracts and improve the bankability of projects to facilitate ease of investment. Finally, the region must look to blended finance structures and innovative financing projects to enable projects to get off the ground.

Finally, Rubén Contreras Lisperguer offered his vision on how LAC countries should unify as a coordinated bloc to achieve the benefits laid out by other panelists. He contended that LAC is often overshadowed on the global scale by other regional blocs. He then posed that the region needs to better utilize fora like the Organization of American States to form a common agenda on issues such as Article 6 at COP 30. Not doing so risks COP 30 becoming counterproductive if other regions’ interests are prioritized.

Panelists concluded by affirming that the upcoming COP 30 is crucial across multiple lines. It will be the COP that seeks to implement the tools established in previous negotiations, and that Brazil holds significant influence in directing talks. Likewise, adaptation to “locked-in” warming will be crucial.

III. Panel III: Reframing Women’s Employment in Traditionally Male-Dominated Sectors

The third panel was done in conjunction with the World Bank and focused on uniting perspectives from industry and government to support women leaders and female employment in the energy sector to drive economic growth, energy security, and gender equality throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Crucially, this panel relied on both personal testimony from a panel of high-level women leaders from Latin America and explorations of policies and practices they have overseen to enhance women’s economic opportunity and participation.

Panelists began by telling their own experiences with gender discrimination. Canadian Senator Rosa Galvez recounted her own story of being shut down by male peers and authorities for her desire to pursue engineering as a career path, explaining the resistance she met from peers who did not think she truly belonged in a scientific field. Likewise, Irene Cañas Díaz recounted being passed up for advancement and promotion for being an unmarried woman, which in the eyes of her supervisors made her much less “deserving” of promotion than male counterparts. She also told her experience as head of Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the Costa Rican government-run electricity and telecommunications provider, where many women chose not to advance in career because they lacked proper support from their partners. Advancement would have meant doing “double duty” as they would have had increased job responsibilities on top of full domestic responsibilities.

Panelists agreed that the establishment of support networks, across various dimensions, was central to remedying this situation. Galvez and Cañas emphasized that mentorship was key to fostering women’s sense of belonging in the energy sector work environment. They also agreed that establishing fair, objective criteria for advancement was crucial to ensuring fairness of opportunity between men and women in the workplace. Even if the “door is open”, women may not feel entirely comfortable in energy sector employment spaces and require support to flourish.

Samantha Constant from the World Bank took the conversation further by pointing out that women’s inclusion does more than foster gender equality but also has powerful economic effects. She highlighted World Bank studies emphasizing women’s economic inclusion raises a country’s GDP and that firms with women in leadership positions perform better than those without. She underscored that driving women’s inclusion in the energy sector could strongly benefit the industry’s competitiveness, as 17 percent of energy sector executives are women.

However, panelists contended that to enhance women’s participation, policies need to be carefully designed. Moderator Patricia Tatto pointed to policies that intended to elevate women can fail due to resource limitations and an absence of mechanisms that can link women to education and training. Likewise, Constant emphasized that gender contexts throughout the region vary, and policies need to be responsive to an individual country’s case. A concrete example was raised by Senator Galvez, where she cited a program that was designed to empower Indigenous women in energy sector work did not result in Indigenous women working at sites near their territories because of a history of sexual violence by male workers against local indigenous women; rather, they took the training they gained and left.

Jorge Rivera Staff and Constant concluded the panel by discussing two examples of successful policies. Rivera explained the “Solar Champions” project he developed in Panama as the National Energy Secretary, which empowered Indigenous women with solar panel installation skills and mentorship to navigate energy sector employment. Similarly, Constant presented the World Bank’s “Gender Tag”, a set of criteria that ensure World Bank investments target women in a positive and sustainable manner.

IV. Panel IV: Rule of Law, Regulatory Frameworks, and Enabling Policies for Energy Business Development in the Evolving Landscape

The final panel of the day surrounded the legal and regulatory environments shaping key energy markets in Latin America, with a particular focus on how these frameworks impact the growth and development of the energy sector. Attention was paid to how shifting regulatory frameworks could impact investor confidence and activity.

Moderator Leonardo Beltrán began the panel by emphasizing the enormous capacity for energy development present in Latin America and that a conducive regulatory environment was key to realizing this potential. He first noted Brazil’s deep offshore wind potential, Chile’s ideal solar conditions, and the Mexican Gulf Coast region’s geothermal potential waiting for development. He noted that the region is also one of the most urbanized globally. These combine in his view to make the region an ideal region for private investment.

However ideal the region may be, key factors as identified by Jessica Bedoya of Miami’s LARA Fund hinder investment flows. These are risks from potential regulatory environment changes, political risk and headlines that scare investors who are unable to interpret them, and reputational risk from a lack of capacity for due diligence and involvement with bad actors.

However, in her view, many of these risk factors tend to be overplayed, a view shared by Martin Menski. For both of them, stable fundamentals in the Latin American investment environment still make it a good area for energy sector investment. Menski specifically identified that when investors can find workarounds to risk factors, they can tap into highly promising and potentially profitable markets. For example, he suggested partnerships with multilaterals to help de-risk investments and change perceptions.

Andrew Derman followed up by re-emphasizing that certainty, stability, and trust are core components for energy contracts. Trust between the state and the investors is the essential aspect that enables a deal to go through; he cited how once-promising countries like Mexico have lost investor trust due to an unstable regulatory environment and thus lost out on investment whereas stable, contract-respecting countries like Guyana have been able to secure funds.

Turning to the global trade environment, all three panelists agreed that the trade regime re-ordering was Latin America’s big opportunity. All noted that the region has begun to benefit from large-scale European investors moving projects to Latin America that once might have gone to Asia or Africa. The region has abundant resources and is well-positioned to trade with the U.S. and Europe, enabling investment. However, they re-affirmed that to secure benefits and increased industrialization, the region needs to stick to the fundamentals of transparency and rule of law to attract projects.