IOA hemispheric conference underscores need for cooperation on energy, climate issues

LIMA, Peru – A Regional Energy Efficiency Center will be created in Peru under a bilateral agreement announced at a June 15-16 symposium organized by the Institute of the Americas.

The agreement reached by the United States and Peru was one of several projects and proposals unveiled during the Americas Energy and Climate Symposium in Lima, Peru, attended by almost 300 representatives of governments, business, multilateral development banks, academia and NGOs from throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The Americas Energy and Climate Symposium was convoked by the region's leaders during the April 17-19 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to search for ways to increase cooperation on critical energy issues facing the hemisphere.

The symposium, hosted by the government of Peru and the Ministry of Energy and Mines, is the first step toward hemispheric agreements on energy and climate issues.

During wide-ranging discussions that emphasized the need for addressing energy and the climate as twin – rather than separate -- issues, the United States announced a Low Carbon Communities Program aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of urban communities in the region. Brazil proposed a Sustainable Urban Development model that would draw from diverse experiences such as its own in Curitiba, as well as Colombia, Chile and the U.S. city of New Orleans. And Mexico proposed a “Green Fund” for the hemisphere that would finance projects such as the purchase of new, energy-efficient appliances.

At a meeting highlighted by presentations from four ministers of energy – Marcelo Tokman of Chile, Pedro Sanchez of Peru, Jacques Gabriel of Haiti and Tomas Vaquero of Honduras – top officials from throughout the region discussed the challenge of protecting the environment while responding to the need to create employment. They also discussed the issue of energy poverty and underscored the need for affordable, secure and reliable energy for all citizens of the hemisphere. And they expressed concerns about securing financing for the projects needed to respond to energy and climate issues.

Government representatives discussed the need for clear and stable rules for the development of renewable sources of energy. They also talked about technology transfer across the hemisphere and the need for progress on harmonizing standards for buildings and appliances.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu delivered a video message during the symposium, which was attended by U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy David Sandalow.

“As President Obama explained when announcing the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas, countries across our hemisphere must come together to find new ways to produce and use energy so that we can create jobs and promote economic recovery while protecting our planet,“Chu said.  “The symposium is the latest in a series of collaborative efforts to strengthen our clean energy future throughout the Americas and we look forward to working with our regional partners in the shared goal of combating global climate change.”

Several heads of the region’s most influential multilateral organizations also spoke about the energy and climate challenges facing the Western Hemisphere. Among the speakers were Enrique Garcia, executive president of the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF), Carlos Florez of OLADE, Jose Felix Garcia of ARPEL and Gabriel Arguello of CIER.

Representatives from throughout the region – from countries as distant as Canada, Belize, Guyana and Argentina – expressed support for a flexible, region-wide energy and climate partnership based on the collaboration established at the Summit of the Americas.

For more information on the symposium, click here

Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism program expands with workshop held in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY — Climate change. Public health. Innovation and Intellectual Property.

The Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism workshop held in Mexico City focused on Latin America’s most pressing concerns during a day-long session attended by more than 100 reporters. It was the first Ealy Science Journalism workshop held in Mexico City.

The workshop, sponsored by the Fundacion Ealy Ortiz, El Universal and the Institute of the Americas, brought together Mexico’s leading scientists, researchers and doctors to discuss the most pressing science, health and environmental issues facing Latin America.

Juan Ramon de la Fuente, who heads the International Association of Universities, said science journalism should be viewed as a way of strengthening Latin America’s democracies and easing inequality in the region.

“All of the countries have failed in this,” said de la Fuente, the former rector of Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM). “That is the Achilles heel in our development.”

De la Fuente’s remarks came during the opening ceremony of the March 19 Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism workshop in Mexico City, which was held to underscore the commitment of Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, president of the board of El Universal, to promoting science journalism in the Western Hemisphere. Since 2003, a nine-day Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism workshop has been organized by the Institute of the Americas at its campus in La Jolla, Ca. The sixth annual workshop will be held July 7-16.

Ealy Ortiz told reporters that investment in education and research is “essential to establishing stable and lasting economic growth. To improving the standard of living and, of course, to increasing social inclusion.” Environment Minister Juan Elvira Quesada said Mexico needs journalists who are specialists in health and science issues, journalists who can present complex information clearly and accurately. IOA Vice President Lynne Walker said journalists are covering issues today that “are urgent for our people, for our countries and for our planet.” “The Institute of the Americas has a strong commitment to helping journalists who cover science, health, innovation and the environment,” Walker said.

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IOA and SEMARNAT announce climate change workshop

COZUMEL, Mexico — The Institute of the Americas and Mexico's Ministry of the Environment (SEMARNAT) on June 4 announced a new partnership to offer a professional workshop on climate change for Mexican journalists.

IOA President Jeffrey Davidow and Juan Elvira Quesada, Mexico's Minister of the Environment, said the workshop will provide scientific data that will allow journalists to explain the impact of global climate change clearly and accurately to their audiences.

The workshop, offered as part of the Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism Program of the Institute of the Americas, was announced during a two-day conference in Cozumel commemorating World Environment Day. Davidow said the intensive training program will include field trips to meet with regional experts on climate change as well as scientific sessions in the Institute's conference center on the University of California, San Diego, campus.

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Regional workshop on violence against journalists focuses on missing, murdered reporters

LA JOLLA — There is an often-repeated phrase among journalists. No story is worth dying for, journalists say.

But journalists are dying in every region of the world. In Iraq, in Somalia, in Russia, in Bolivia, in the Philippines, journalists died last year while reporting the news in their countries.

Journalists are dying at the U.S.-Mexico border, too. And they are vanishing in frightening numbers. Since 2000, 25 Mexican reporters have been killed. In the past three years alone, eight journalists have disappeared, making Mexico the only country in the region where journalists have been reported missing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists now classifies Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters. In May, the Institute of the Americas organized its first professional journalism workshop on the essential value of a free press and the threat posed to fragile democracies by the rise in violence against journalists.

The May 4-8 seminar, entitled “Silencing the Press: Violence Against Journalists as a Threat to Democracy,” hosted specialists from throughout Latin America on the question of freedom of speech as well as journalists who have been threatened or worked in violent situations.

The workshop drew participants from throughout the region. Among the journalists attending were a Nicaraguan TV director; a Bolivian reporter who is the former president of the La Paz Journalism Association; and a reporter working with the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS) in Peru. Journalists from Mexico City and from Michoacan were among the participants as well as reporters from Tijuana news organizations.

Sergio Sarmiento, director of the editorial board of Mexico’s TV Azteca, spoke with the journalists about his project, "Road to Freedom: Freedom of Expression in Mexico," which is aimed at encouraging freedom of expression in the Americas. Sarmiento, who has published a book of essays by Latin American reporters on the subject, holds an annual journalism contest to encourage writings about freedom of expression.

Carlos Lauria, senior program coordinator for the Americas with the Committee to Protect Journalists, talked about the rising violence against journalists in the region and Los Angeles Times reporter Sam Quinones, an award-winning journalist whose life was threatened when he raised questions about drug trafficking in northern Mexico’s Mennonite community, discussed his work entitled, "Mexico under Siege."

Amy Isackson, border reporter for KPBS in San Diego, and Vicente Calderon, director of TijuanaPress.com, discussed their groundbreaking project entitled, “Border Battle,” and about the dangers of reporting on drug cartels in Tijuana. Al Valdez, an international gang specialist who for many years was the supervising investigator with the Orange County District Attorney's Office anti-gang unit, talked with journalist participants about the increasing sophistication of gangs while attorney Jesus Quinonez, a detective with the Baja California Attorney General's Office, explained how homicide investigations are conducted. The workshop was featured on the KPBS These Days program on April 27, when host Maureen Cavanaugh interviewed IOA Vice President Lynne Walker who was the Mexico City bureau chief for Copley News Service for 15 years before joining the Institute of the Americas in April 2008.

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Jack F. Ealy Science Journalism scholarship winners announced

LA JOLLA —The Institute of the Americas and Fundacion Ealy Ortiz on June 4 announced the winners of 15 full scholarships to the Jack F. Ealy Workshop on Science Journalism to be held July 7-16.

The Ealy scholarship, in its sixth year at the Institute of the Americas, is designed to encourage in-depth, comprehensive coverage of science, health and environmental issues affecting the people of Latin America. The scholarship is sponsored by Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, president of the board of Mexico City-based El Universal in honor of his late father, Jack F. Ealy.

This year’s winners were chosen from almost 200 print, radio and television journalists reporting throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The winners are:

Lucas Viano, Diario La Voz del Interior, Argentina
Teresa Elisa Clemente dos Santos, Agencia Notisa, Brasil
Oriana Fernández González, Periódico La Tercera, Chile
María Fernanda Landea Zamudio, Televisión Nacional de Chile y Centro de Envejecimiento
y Regeneración, Chile
Maria Luzdary Ayala Villamil, Revista Ecoguia, Colombia
Carolina Martínez, El País, Colombia
Tania Rafaelina Molina, Omnimedia / Periódico Diario Libre, Dominican Republic
María Magdalena Reyes Martínez, El Diario de Hoy, El Salvador
Carlos Domínguez, Canal 12, El Salvador Sebastian Escalon, Siglo XXI, Guatemala
Oscar Ernesto Méndez García, Grupo Imagen, Excélsior y Cadena 3, México
Nelly Sandra Luna Amancio, Empresa Editora El Comerico, Peru
Catalina Arevalo, Agencia EFE, Spain
Lucia Cuozzi, Agencia Piso Trece Comunicación y Revista Teco - Diario El País, Uruguay
Alejandra Isabel Hernández Mejías, Diario El Carabobeño, Venezuela

“We are exceptionally impressed with the work submitted by this year’s applicants,” said Jeffrey Davidow, president of the Institute of the Americas. “Their outstanding coverage of issues ranging from climate change to pandemics demonstrates their commitment to clear and accurate reporting on issues that are critical to the region’s future.”

The journalists are also finalists for two Jack F. Ealy Scientific Journalism Awards, the second annual awards for outstanding coverage of science, health and the environment since the Institute of the Americas science journalism program began in 2003. Winners will be announced and a cash prize awarded on July 13.

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BP's Hayward receives IOA Energy Innovator Award

LA JOLLA — Tony Hayward, group chief executive officer of BP p.l.c., was honored May 13 with the Institute of the America's first Energy Innovator Award.

"Today, Tony is recognized for his leadership in calling for technology investment to create greater energy efficiency and for working to bring new energy sources to the market," IOA Chairman David Weaver said during an award ceremony attended by nearly 200 people at the Institute's annual La Jolla Conference.

"The Institute believes it is important to recognize the achievements of the private sector. BP, as it is embodied by Tony, is a visionary company and an innovative leader in the energy world." BP is the largest investor in U.S. energy development.

Over the past five years, BP has invested more than $30 billion in the United States to find new sources of oil and gas, extend production from existing fields, improve the reliability of its U.S. refineries, expand its wind and solar business, create better biofuels and develop new low-carbon technologies.

"In all respects, Tony Hayward is a leader in his field. He's a visionary and he most assuredly deserves the Institute of the Americas' first Energy Innovator Award," Weaver told the group of more than 100 energy executives from throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Hayward said Latin America will play a critical role in future energy production. Latin America currently produces 12 percent of the world's oil and 7 percent of the world's natural gas. Gas production has almost doubled over the past 10 years, Hayward said, "an outstanding example of what can be achieved when technology innovation is combined with public-private partnership.

"The last few years have seen some very successful subsoil oil exploration in Brazil, enabled by changes in seismic imaging and drilling technology," Hayward noted. "Venezuela also boasts significant conventional oil resources that can now be developed, thanks to today's technology."

Latin America is one of the biggest producers of hydroelectric power, he said, and biofuel production in the region is expected to show significant growth over the next few years.

"There are few limits to technology and innovation to access available resources," Hayward said, "so when it comes to producing more energy to meet demand the problems are not below ground, they're above it -- they're human, they're not geological."

Some 80 percent of the world's resources are off limits to the world's best technology and know-how, he said, "but these are hurdles that can be overcome."

"Here, I believe, lies the opportunity for Latin America," said Hayward. "The region can differentiate itself and gain competitive advantage by focusing on solving the challenges above ground."

"We're living through a fundamental shift between the balance of supply and demand. This powerful trend will not be stopped by the downturn we're currently experiencing," he said. "We know the aims: A stable energy supply and a sustainable planet. We neet to create a framework that will allow us to get on and deliver. Latin America is well placed to do just that."

To read Hayward's views on U.S. energy policy, click here

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Davidow named to Southwest Border Task Force

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on June 4 named IOA President Jeffrey Davidow to the Southwest Border Task Force, a newly formed commission charged with examining the Department's efforts along the U.S.-Mexico border.
 
“This task force, comprised of law enforcement, elected officials and national security experts from around the country, will advise the Department on key issues facing communities along the Southwest border,“ Napolitano said. “I have asked this group to present me with concrete recommendations to address the complex challenges we face in this region, and their collective expertise will be a critical asset as we work to secure the border while facilitating legal travel and trade.“
 
Napolitano asked the 20-member group to focus on two major challenges: Ensuring rigorous inspection procedures at ports of entry while facilitating commerce and assessing the consequences of border violence and the Department's response to communities along the border.
 
The group, which held its inaugural meeting on June 4 in Albuquerque, N.M., is chaired by former CIA and FBI director William Webster.  The vice chairs are Jim Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, and Lupe Trevino, sheriff of Hidalgo County, Texas.
 
For the complete list of Southwest Border Task Force members, click here

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Fifth annual Western Hemisphere Energy Forum focuses on Summit of the Americas

WASHINGTON— The Institute of the Americas convened hemispheric representatives from government, the private sector and NGOs on June 9 to discuss energy security in the region.

This year‚s forum, which was held at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Enrique Iglesias Conference Center, focused on the successes and the challenges posed by the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad Tobago. The session laid the groundwork for the IOA’s June 15-16 Lima, Peru, conference aimed at establishing an Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas — a regional effort supported by the U.S. Department of Energy to ensure energy security, promote alternative energy resources and set common goals for confronting climate change.

At the Western Hemisphere Energy Forum in Washington, representatives from the DOE and the U.S. State Department spoke about the upcoming Lima conference and areas of possible cooperation.

IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno delivered the keynote address opening the conference and IOA President Jeffrey Davidow, who served as the White House Adviser to the Summit of the Americas, offered his insights on President Barack Obama’s approach to regional energy issues.

Luis Enrique Berrizbeitia, executive vice president of the Corporacion Andina de Fomento; Mark Lambrides, Organization of American States division chief of energy and climate change mitigation; and Leandro Alves, IDB energy division chief, reviewed energy strategies for the Western Hemisphere.

Three ambassadors to the United States — Peruvian Ambassador Luis Valdivieso, Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco and Trinidad Tobago Ambassador Glenda Morean-Phillip — discussed their views on regional energy and climate cooperation.

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PRI’s Beltrones urges measures to streamline, modernize Mexico’s political system

LA JOLLA — Saying the Mexican Congress has failed to meet voters’ demand for change since one-party rule ended with the election of President Vicente Fox in 2000, Sen. Manlio Fabio Beltrones called for sweeping measures to restructure the country’s political system..

“If it is true that we have left behind an era of one-party rule and have entered an era of plurality, it is also true that the instruments for dialogue between those who have differing ideas are the same,” Beltrones said at a May 20 Tequila Talk at the Institute of the Americas.

Beltrones, the Senate caucus chairman for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said the July 5 mid-term elections are creating“confusion” in the political process and blocking attempts to modernize the system “to improve dialogue in our country.”

“We are in a political struggle that does not allow for the offering of ideas,” he said. “What we lack are political parties that say why they want to win the election and what they are going to do after they win. We have political parties that just want to win the majority.”

Once the newly elected congressional representatives have taken office, Beltrones said new measures must be passed to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy, to allow for the recall of “bad officials in clearly established cases” and to permit referendums on constitutional modifications.

Beltrones also called for a measure allowing the Senate to ratify Cabinet appointments.

“We must end these capricious decisions that include on the Cabinet only those who are loyal or who are friends,” he said. “We have to bring to an end these governments of ’cuates y cuotas’ and have professional governments. These measures are needed to guarantee governability and to reach the accords that we all need.”

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Paulo Sotero elected to IOA board of directors

Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. , has been elected to the Institute of the Americas board of directors.

Prior to joining the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2006, Sotero was the Washington correspondent for Estado de S. Paulo, a leading Brazilian daily newspaper. From 2003 to 2006 he taught as an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University, both in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and in the Center for Latin American Studies of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. 

In addition to his responsibilities at the Wilson Center, Sotero is a frequent lecturer on Brazilian and Latin American affairs at U.S. universities, think tanks and civic and business associations.

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Foreign Policy publisher Moises Naim keynotes IOA board dinner

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Moises Naim, editor and publisher of Foreign Policy magazine, delivered the keynote address at a June 8 dinner hosted by the Institute of the Americas and the Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute for the organizations’ boards of directors.

Naim has written extensively on international politics and economics -- especially about the unintended consequences of globalization. For the past 10 years, his "Missing Links" column in Foreign Policy has demonstrated the surprising ways in which the world is interconnected.

At the dinner, Naim’s provocative remarks painted an impressionistic picture of Latin America. He focused his comments on the challenges facing the region today, as well as Latin America's great promise.

The dinner at the elegant Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., was attended by 170 people, including former U.S. Cabinet members, ambassadors, top government officials and trade and commerce officials.

Among those in attendance were: John Negroponte, former deputy secretary of state; Arturo Sarukhan, Mexican ambassador to the United States; Alan Bersin, Border Czar for the Department of Homeland Security; Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Lazaro Cardenas, former governor of Michoacan; Jim Kolbe, former congressional representative from Arizona; Harriett Babbitt, former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States; Carla Hills, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Bruce Babbitt, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Jim Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Andres Rozental, former deputy foreign minister of Mexico.

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IOA expresses condolences to family of board member Charles Dalfen

The Institute of the Americas expresses its condolences to the family of board member Charles Dalfen.  Mr. Dalfen passed away on May 26.

Mr. Dalfen, an attorney at the Toronto-based international business law firm Torys LLP, served on the Institute of the Americas board of directors from 2006-2009.

For five years, he served as chair of the Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Prior to that appointment, he was a senior partner at Torys and chair of the firm’s communications group.

Mr. Dalfen was instrumental in supporting the Information and Communications Technologies program at the Institute of the Americas.

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