This initiative is endorsed by GIZ in collaboration with the World Bank, ECLAC and the European Union’s Euroclima+ Program. There are currently 13 countries participating through projects that are implemented by GIZ’s national offices in the region.
The event began with a presentation by Gonzalo Muñoz, High Level Climate Action Champion COP25, who stated that “in less than two years green hydrogen has become the main technology that will allow us to solve the decarbonization processes of difficult to abate industries.”
Then, Max Correa, head of the Fuels and New Energy Division of the Chilean Energy Ministry, said that the regions’ countries “could all have a perfect regional strategy and position themselves as a cluster to export green molecules to the large consumption centers, for example in the United States, Europe, or Asia.”
Rainer Schröer, director of the Renewable Energy Program of GIZ and promoter of H2LAC, said that the platform aims to “exchange experiences and information on hydrogen development at the regional level, position the region in the global hydrogen discussion, and contribute to the development of hydrogen projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Jeanette Sánchez, ECLAC's director of Natural Resources, said that “Latin America is one of the world's leading regions in terms of the use of renewable energy and can play an important role in promoting the production and use of low-carbon hydrogen, contributing significantly to increasing energy security.”
Meanwhile, Stephanie Gil, director of the World Bank's Energy Unit for LAC, said that “H2LAC and its partners can support our countries on technical and policy issues of fiscal regulations and innovative financing in order to take the region’s opportunity for growth and green jobs as quickly as possible.”
Horst Pilger, Sector Director for Latin American Programmes from the European Union, explained that “the creation of alliances can allow for advances in our climate’s protection, but also establish an engine for sustainable economic growth,” highlighting the European Union’s interest in the region.
Finally, María Paz de la Cruz, from the secretariat of the LAC Green Hydrogen Action, assured that “we want to support early financing schemes and reduce investment risk. Here, public-private collaboration is essential in reducing information asymmetries. We believe that through the H2LAC platform we can achieve very important synergies”.
H2LAC.org already offers different services for its members. In the future it will carry out new actions so that Latin American and Caribbean countries take this opportunity to participate in this industry.
