IEA Deputy Executive Director participates in XLIX OLADE Ministerial Meeting

The IEA participated in the 2019 Latin America Energy Week in Lima, Peru this week, an event spearheaded by the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE). IEA Deputy Executive Director Paul Simons provided high-level keynote addresses to the XLIX OLADE Ministerial Meeting, the Latin American Gas Conference and SunWorld Conference (International Solar Alliance). The IEA also co-organised a regional conference on the role of statistics for tracking clean energy transitions.

The Latin America Energy Week is a key annual event for the Latin American energy sector, offering a series of events focusing on renewables, energy efficiency, energy data and statistics and natural gas, running back-to-back with the annual Meeting of Ministers of OLADE. This year, following more than two years of close collaboration with the IEA and UN, the OLADE Ministerial adopted a resolution to formalize OLADE’s push for harmonization of energy statistics, calling for the organization to work with IEA and countries to further improve energy data collection in the region.

In his keynote address to Ministers, Mr Simons commended this decision and pledged continued IEA support to the effort, which is being supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Mr Simons’ keynote address also presented the findings of the World Energy Outlook 2019, published on 13 November.

The IEA also co-organised a two-day conference focusing on the role of energy statistics for tracking progress in Latin America’s clean energy transitions, along with OLADE and the UN Statistical Division. This conference was attended by around 200 data producers and users from the private sector and international organizations across 15 Latin American countries. To set the scene for this event, Roberta Quadrelli, Head of Section in the IEA Energy Data Center, presented results of the SDG7 progress report, a joint report of the Custodian Agencies – the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mr Simons also presented the IEA’s Gas 2019 report at the Latin America Gas Conference, an event organized by regional oil and gas industry association ARPEL, International Gas Union (IGU) and OLADE. The presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session with participants from the private sector, focusing on LNG prospects, current soft gas market conditions, and long term prospects for gas. Finally, Mr Simons participated in a closing plenary panel of the Sun World event, alongside the Peruvian Ministers of Environment and Energy, OLADE Executive Secretary Blanco, and ISA head Tripathy.

During a meeting with the newly re-elected OLADE Executive Secretary Alfonso Blanco and IDB Head of Energy Division Ariel Yepez, Mr Simons discussed next steps in joint cooperation, including IEA support to the implementation of the harmonized OLADE energy statistics framework. Mr Simons also held bilateral meetings with the Heads of Delegation from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Peru, Salvador, Uruguay, as well as the Director General International Solar Alliance, Upendra Tripathy.