Following the publication of Worldwatch Institute report The Way Forward for Renewable Energy in Central America last June in English and its Spanish release in August, Worldwatch held a U.S. East Coast launch event at the Embassy of Costa Rica in Washington, D.C. After Ambassador Muni Figueres Boggs gave a brief welcome, Alexander Ochs, Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy Director, presented the report’s key insights. Mark Lambrides, the Energy and Climate Change Division Chief at the Organization of American States, and Christiaan Gischler, Senior Energy Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank, each further discussed the state of renewable energy in Central America and the implications of current developments in the region, such as SIEPAC, the regional interconnection transmission system that is close to completion. Insights from the report were also presented at events in Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Brazil and Panama.. Since then, we have been working hard on the second phase of our Central America Sustainable Energy Initiative which we hope will include regional, sector-specific roadmaps such as energy efficiency in the tourism sector, financing models for small- and medium-scale renewable energy projects, national energy pathway scenario building, and achieving universal energy access through micro-grids.

Worldwatch’s Central America Sustainable Energy Initiative has been made possible by the support of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) and the Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America (AEA/EEP). Click here or email Milena Gonzalez for more information about this project.