National meeting of 100% RE project brings together different levels of government and private sector

Renewable energy is the energy provided by renewable resources, such as bioenergy, geothermal, hydroelectric, oceanic, solar and wind. The goal of having 100% renewable energy in a given location, region or country means making all sources derived from renewable resources to meet all end-use needs.

To help achieve this goal, the 100% Renewables Project: Route to Cities and Regions, implemented by ICLEI and financed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the International Climate Initiative ( IKI), offers support to national and local governments in order to promote a movement towards 100% RE strategies with greater awareness and involvement of stakeholders in the countries of the global south.

“Energy is a strategic theme at the national level having repercussions at the state level and very present in the dynamics of cities, from the perspective of consumption and generation. This national meeting is very important because it is thought from the multi-stakeholder perspective that we at ICLEI value in all cooperation projects ”points out Rodrigo Perpétuo, ICLEI’s executive secretary, at the opening of the First Meeting of the National Advisory Group of Argentina, which took place at the last Wednesday (12/02).

Held virtually due to the restrictions imposed by the new coronavirus pandemic, the event brought together entities from different levels of government and the private sector and aimed to explore how the national level could facilitate the energy transition and the projects in Avellaneda, La Plata and Rosário, especially concerning finance alternatives for local governments; strategic financing opportunities; and discuss the status of projects to identify challenges, facilitators and key processes, taking into account the alignment with national goals and plans.

“The large presence of financial actors today is no accident. This is the meeting space we wanted to create, to present sustainable projects and catalyze opportunities ”says Maria Julia Reyna, director of ICLEI Argentina, referring to the presence of representatives from organizations such as Banco de la Nación, Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, BICE, ADEBA, ABAPPRA and the Finanzas Sostenibles Argentina Protocol.

Also during the meeting, Marco Massacesi, from Red Argentina de Municipios against the Climate Change (RAMCCC), presented a national overview and explained that 53% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country come from the energy sector. “It is therefore necessary to develop different strategies to address each of the sectors and obtain better results,” he concluded.

For Dionísio Scarpin, mayor of Avellaneda (Santa Fe) elected model city of the project: “Local governments are the best instruments to implement this type of action in practice”.