It will be until 2027 within the Global Gateway Investment Agenda, the program with which Europe wants to compete with the Chinese New Silk Road.
The European Union as an institution and several member states of the bloc, with France, Spain and Sweden at the forefront, will invest until 2027 in Latin America and the Caribbean 45,000 million euros within the Global Gateway Investment Agenda, the program with which Europe wants to compete with the Chinese New Silk Road.
Those 45,000 million are largely French (11,000), Spanish (9,500), Swedish (3,000) and Dutch (2,000). Other countries contribute smaller amounts and the European Commission draws 10,000 million from the community budgets. A part of that money will be in the form of non-refundable transfers and another part of loans under better conditions than those of the financial markets.
It is a drop in comparison with European private investment, which amounts to 693,000 million, 45% more than 10 years ago.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, explained at a round table in which European and Latin American businessmen participated that the program will focus on the ecological transitiondigital transformation, human development, improvement of health structures and vaccines.
Von der Leyen, supported by the Spanish president Pedro Sanchez (Spain holds the biannual presidency of the bloc) explained that the investment priorities will be clean energy, health, education and fundamental raw materials. The European Union has a list of more than 130 projects to invest, which it has carried out jointly with the Spanish government and the Latin American and Caribbean governments.
Von der Leyen explained several of these projects on Monday. There will be investments in lithium mining in Argentina and Chilein telecommunications networks in the Brazilian Amazon, in the electrification of transport in Costa Rica, to build a metro line in Bogota, to deploy 5G telecommunications networks in Jamaica or to improve the Paraguayan electricity network.
The European Commission recalled that in digital development there are already investments to launch two regional Copernicus centers (the European satellite network) “for disaster risk reduction, climate change and terrestrial and marine surveillance”. There will also be a green hydrogen development project in Chile and European money will be injected into the Amazon Fund in Brazil.
There are several initiatives that will gather minor investments. The Sanitary Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean will support “the development of local manufacturing of medicines and vaccines and the resilience of health systems”.
The one for Global Green Bonds “develops a green bond market” and the one for Inclusive Societies wants to “address inequalities, reduce poverty and social exclusion and improve social cohesion”.
EU-Argentina Agreement
Von der Leyen and President Alberto Fernandez signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperation in renewable energy, hydrogen and reduction of methane emissions.
The text establishes that the European Union and Argentina “will collaborate to develop and promote renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as the use of hydrogen and its derivatives in plications such as industrial processes, transport and energy storage”.
The deal puts a lot of emphasis on methane. It is about “achieving the maximum technically feasible reduction of methane leaks in the fossil gas supply chain”.
For that “new technologies to reduce venting and flare combustion” will be reviewed and work will be done to “integrate recovered methane into the supply chain in order to reduce harmful emissions, while increasing the efficiency of the natural gas supply chain.”
The memorandum also ensures that “future investments” (in renewables or gas) will be made “in compliance with relevant environmental legislation”, taking into account “concerns about the degradation of biodiversity” and guaranteeing “the protection, conservation and restoration of water systems and aquatic ecosystems”.
The energy transition must be “fair” and respect “the interests of local communities”.
bp
Source: Clarin
