The undersecretary of Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), Walter Verrimet with authorities of the European Union (EU) to advance the memorandum of understanding on renewable energy, energy efficiency and green hydrogen.
Verri He highlighted that the country “has advanced very quickly” in the energy transition and valued the agreement, which had been signed in July within the framework of the EU-Celac Summit, as an important action to attract investments.
The leader expressed himself like this after holding a meeting with the director of Energy Policy of the General Directorate of Energy of the EU, Cristina Lobilloduring the LIII Meeting of Ministers of the Latin American Energy Organization (WAVE OF), which was carried out at the facilities of the Hotel Radisson Montevideo Victoria Plaza, within the VIII Energy Week.
In a meeting focused on technical work, the undersecretary of the MIEM enhanced the increase in exchange with Europe and the intention to continue strengthening ties and maintained that the memorandum “commits us to advance in this matter of renewables, in energy efficiency and in the green hydrogen.”
“Uruguay has advanced very quickly in this last area, within the framework of its second energy transition, and after carrying out a successful first transition, in which the decarbonization of the electrical matrix,” said the leader.
The objective of decarbonizing 40% of fossil sources in the energy matrix
For its part, Verri He highlighted that, within the framework of the second transition, “we have to decarbonize what we have left.” This is 40% of fossil sources in the total energy matrix. “It is a fairly ambitious goal that we have set, because in the world the average is 80%,” he noted.
The undersecretary of MIEM He added: “We could say that we are fine and we do not need to move so quickly, but what we want is to reduce that 40% as quickly as possible and be able to fulfill the commitments we have assumed as a nation.”
For this, he considered that “international cooperation is essential to achieve the investments that we achieved to transform this” and highlighted that money has already been injected with respect to the development of the green hydrogen and its derivatives, both small State pilots and large European projects, especially German ones.
For all this, for Verri The memorandum of understanding can be “the beginning of an exchange that will lead us to achieve many things.”
Praise from the European Union
Along the same lines, he expressed Lobillo, who praised the energy transition and said that Uruguay It is a “model country”, which is why he called to “focus on future technologies, especially renewable hydrogen.”
At the same time, he reiterated the commitment of the EU in collaborating with the region and highlighted the importance of energy because it is a commodity and because, as it is the source of 75% of greenhouse gas emissions, it is essential to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
“We have a wide field to collaborate,” said the European leader and maintained that although the memorandum “is not binding, it provides reliability and certainty to future investments by both European and local companies.”
Source: Ambito
