Manuel Urriola, Minister of Energy of Panama,
Joe Salazar, Director, Office of Economic Policy, United States State Department,
Jeremy Martin, Director, Energy Program, Institute of the Americas,
Ministers and Vice Ministers of Energy and Environment,
Ambassador Abigail Castro, Director of the OAS Office in Panama,
Mark Lambrides, Chief, Energy and Climate Change Section of the OAS Department of Sustainable Development,
Representatives of private sector, international organizations and NGOs

Minister Urriola, let me begin by congratulating you. By all accounts, the meetings over the past two days have been tremendously successful. Gracias y Felicidades.

The efforts of your Government to organize these meetings, with support from the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Energy, the Institute of the Americas, and the OAS, is reflective of the collaborative spirit on which the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas is based. ECPA is about multiple countries working together on sharing best practices and lessons learned. It is about creating new partnerships and expanding old ones for the benefit of the people.

The OAS is proud to be of service to Member States in promoting energy sustainability and climate policies and providing technical assistance to ensure better access to energy resources by those in more need. This gathering has been an important milestone toward meeting the commitments of the region to the energy and environment goals outlined by our Heads of State at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in 2009.

You have gathered here today many of the critical stakeholders in the energy and climate sectors from the Western Hemisphere. To the private sector, NGOs, academics and fellow representatives of international organizations, thank you for your participation and for your commitment to the sustainable development of the Americas. The ambitious goals that we are pursuing are not possible without your leadership and involvement.

We have mandates, many commitments have been agreed upon, such as during the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. We need to move from intentions to decisions and actions, and deal effectively with the challenges our countries, especially the small and vulnerable, are facing.

For this to happen, we need real political will and commitment. No country alone can solve the energy and climate challenges on its own. We need a vision that is shared by all and this meeting is one of the examples to foster such a vision.

Ladies and gentlemen, to facilitate beneficial use of existing resources, we need not only political stability, and the right economic vision and strategy, but also the necessary pre-conditions for economic growth, and one of these is the energy infrastructure, the cost of energy, and the secured delivery of energy, among others.

The economic development of our nations will be fueled by modern energy services. Our factories, farms, offices, and homes require ever increasing amounts of electricity, oil and gas to heat, move, and light the way. Yet access to all of these services is not unlimited… and increasingly our use of fossil fuels, and abuse of our forests, is having negative consequences for our environment…our global climate in fact.

It is notable that the first global acknowledgement of the climate challenges, and the relationship to the energy sector, took place in this hemisphere. During the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world began to reshape the way it thinks about human activity and the health of the planet. We certainly haven’t figured out how to fix our ways, during the nearly twenty years since… but the energy and climate debate has been central in the last few years, not just in the political arena, but also in the media, among scientists, and in the homes of ordinary people.

Skyrocketing crude oil prices certainly led to many of these debates ¬¬—we still remember crude oil prices topping 147 dollars per barrel in July 2008. By the way, today’s oil prices are topping 107 dollars per barrel and are threatening to climb higher.

Climate change has also rapidly moved up the global policy agenda as recent reports show the serious nature of a matter which warrants prompt action. In the short time since Rio we have seen numerous dramatic climatic events:

• the mere mention of the names Mitch and Katrina sends shiver down many spines;
• in Bolivia the Chacaltaya Bolivia glacier is nearly gone and in Peru, the Cordillera Blanca Mountains have lost nearly 30% of their glacial coverage, and;
• the drought in 2005 in the Amazon Basin was one of the worst on record.

Reversing this trend will clearly require a global response, but this hemisphere – recognizing the challenges caused by climate change and the finite limits to fossil fuels – is in a good position to change the way it does energy, in fact it is already changing.

The Americas boast abundant renewable and conventional natural resources that are unmatched worldwide. We need to develop the right energy mix on the basis of the opportunities that exist and the difficulties countries are facing.

The 21st century requires an energy revolution and it should be driven by the Americas. Whether large or small, rich or poor, north or south, our nations must contribute their ideas to set the tone of a new era in energy.

A competitive and diversified energy portfolio is vital to the development of our domestic industries, for employment and sustainable economic growth, and renewable energy can contribute to poverty alleviation in particular during a time of high and unstable oil prices.

Promoting alternative energy sources and an efficient use of energy is of critical importance. It is incumbent upon us to utilize this patrimony in a way that allows the people of the Americas to meet their development needs without putting at risk the ability of future generations to meet our own. Already this region shows leadership when it comes to the development and use of renewable energy alternatives:

• The USA, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador are all among the top 15 geothermal power producing countries in the world.
• Hydropower supplies up to 70% the electricity in South America and is home to some of the largest hydropower facilities in the world.
• Brazil and the U.S. together produce nearly 90% of the ethanol in the world.

Yet much more can be done. There remains great untapped potential to use renewables – such as wind, solar, and biomass to produce electricity and even more renewable transportation fuels from a growing number of sources like algae, agricultural wastes and jatropha. Renewables won’t solve our problems in the near future. We continue to rely on sustainable source of fossil fuels, drawing on oil reserves from our own hemisphere. We must work together to expand the sustainable use of natural gas, including expanding pipelines throughout the hemisphere.

The answers also require us to think about how we use energy – and how we can continue to grow while using less. Energy efficiency is something we all must commit to. We must be more efficient in the way we generate electricity, in the way we drive, in the way we light our homes and power our machinery.

The tools for a sustainable energy future are within our reach. But there are many hurdles in our way. This process – ECPA – is critical to removing many of those barriers through collaboration, knowledge sharing. Our leaders, gathered at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, recognized that energy is an essential resource for improving the standard of living of the peoples and that access to energy is of paramount importance to economic growth with equity and social inclusion. To strengthen Inter-American collaboration on these issues, U.S. President Obama invited all nations of the Hemisphere to join in an Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas – ECPA – as a forum for sharing ideas and devising solutions.

Compelled by the need to continue deliberations on energy and climate, last year the Ministers of Energy from the Americas met in Washington for the Energy and Climate Ministerial of the Americas. They discussed ways to collaborate in the combat against climate change and the achievement of a low carbon, clean energy future. In this context, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted the fundamental purpose of ECPA as a partnership not to impose requirements or regulations, but to create a forum and framework to share best practices, cultivate new collaborations, promote indigenous solutions, deepen regional ties, and foster local and national leadership.

The Heads of State will meet in 2012 in Cartagena de Indias for the Sixth Summit of the Americas. Without a doubt, the energy and climate debate will be at the forefront of their discussions. I propose that we take advantage of ECPA and use it as a bridge between Summits to allow us to keep communication channels open so that we can provide our leaders with the support they need to engage in meaningful discussions on energy and climate in Cartagena. The debate around energy and climate did not end with the OAS General Assembly Declaration of Panama in 2007. It did not end with the Summit of the Americas in 2009, and it will not end in Cartagena in 2012.

We must put our minds to work and devise the kind of pioneering solutions that will ensure energy security and environmental protection, and ECPA provides a channel to deepen cooperation and energy integration. To promote all these ideas and initiatives, I urge you to communicate clearly to your governments the priorities as well as the need to work together.

Let me finish by saying that our region is not alone in the quest for energy security and environmental protection. All over the world, governments and people are advancing ideas and seeking solutions that will bring about progress and lessen the impacts on climate. We are aware of the fact that energy is becoming more and more expensive, and that the poor are those most affected by these rising prices. We know that we are not using the region’s enormous potential for renewable energy and energy efficiency. We realize that clean energy can become an abundant source of good jobs. We owe it to the people of the Americas, and to the future generations, to commit ourselves to accomplish these goals and to bring power to the people. It is the kind of power that people need, but also the kind of power that strengthens democracies.

In closing, I congratulate you with this ECPA process, and suggest that we all try to promote the concept and create ownership at all levels and in all countries.

Also, I congratulate the government of Panama with the adoption of the wind energy bill. It could not have been better planned, and with your adoption, Minister Urriola, you symbolize in a very concrete manner the way forward.

Thank you!