A Green Recovery in the Americas?

Policy briefing to explore tactics for expanding renewable energy throughout the Hemisphere in times of crisis.

Is Latin America falling behind in the green revolution? What are Latin American and Caribbean countries doing to encourage investments in biofuels, wind, solar and energy efficiency in a more adverse environment? How many new jobs can these investments be expected to generate? What are the opportunities for regional collaboration?

These and related questions will be the focus of a briefing on February 19 hosted by Inter-American Development Bank president Luis Alberto Moreno with the participation of Chilean Energy minister Marcelo Tokman, Álvaro Ríos Roca, former executive secretary of OLADE and former minister of Energy of Bolivia, Karen Harbert, president and CEO, Institute for 21st Century Energy, and David Rothkopf, chairman and CEO of Garten Rothkopf.

The briefing will include a first-look presentation of “A Blueprint for Green Energy in the Americas 2009,” a comprehensive study of renewable power, biofuels, and carbon markets in the Americas and their potential to contribute to green growth, commissioned by the IDB and carried out by Garten Rothkopf, an independent consultancy.

Putting the Americas in a global context, the report looks at the trends shaping markets, policies, regulations, investment, and growth. The report offers a critique of the development of green energy in the region, identifies areas of great opportunity, and offers recommendations on how they might be realized to increase competitiveness, spur economic growth and human development, and mitigate risk in troubled global markets.

IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno; Chile’s minister of Energy Marcelo Tokman ; Álvaro Ríos Roca, Former executive secretary of OLADE and ; former minister of Energy of Bolivia ; Karen Harbert, president and CEO, Institute for 21st Century Energy; David Rothkopf, chairman and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, Thursday, Feb. 19, from 12:00 p.m. to 1 p.m., Inter-American Development Bank Enrique Iglesias Conference Center 1330 New York Avenue, NW , Room CR2. [ Contacts: Paul Constance, [email protected], (202) 623-2572].