Institute of the Americas

Due to the COVID-19, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are experiencing the biggest economic crisis in their modern history. Without pro-active steps to curb the region’s growing poverty, unemployment and emerging debt crisis, the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic will be felt for many years to come.

Here, the Institute of the Americas is working to catalyze public policies and regulatory reforms that spur expanded investment in the region’s energy sector while also responding to emerging climate change related challenges. The Institute seeks to impartially assist governments to make educated policy decisions drawing upon lessons learned from global best practices.

Through its STEAM Initiative, IOA is working to better prepare the next generation of scientists and technologists across the Americas to better position countries in Latin America to become more globally competitive.

This is accomplished by empowering teachers to incorporate project-based learning in their classrooms and providing students with STEAM focused learning opportunities. Career mentoring opportunities are also provided with practicing scientists.

In the area of energy & sustainability, the Institute of Americas seeks to achieve its goals by focusing on six priority areas:

• Renewables - Accelerating the growth of the cleantech sector in the region
• Energy Efficiency - Leveraging technology and policy to reduce consumption
• Oil & Gas - Exploring important trends, challenges and opportunities
• Low-Carbon Economies - Transforming energy generation & consumption and mobility
• Enhanced Regional Integration - Developing win-win cross-border opportunities
• Stakeholder Engagement - Managing complexity for successful outcomes

The Institute creates content – white papers, reports, policy papers and opinion pieces – and we convene high-level roundtables and conferences focused on these issues and the broader goals and objectives of informing and shaping public policy.

Since 1995, the Institute’s annual La Jolla Energy Conference has been bringing together energy ministers, policymakers, regulators and business leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Institute’s Madrid Energy Conference works to assess and leverage developments in Europe on energy transition with an eye to how they can inform policy and investment frameworks in Latin America.

In 2018, we launched our Energy Transition Initiative to provide policymakers from throughout Latin America with a deeper understanding of the evolving energy sector across the globe and what it entails for the Americas.

To help promote expanded energy literacy in Mexico’s state of Baja California, the Institute established its Energy Ambassadors program to educate and inform key civic leaders from the municipalities of Tijuana, Ensenada, Mexicali, Tecate and Rosarito about energy related issues impacting their communities as well as emerging opportunities in the area of renewable energy.

In the area of STEAM, the Institute of the Americas convenes both in person and virtual hybrid educational programs in Spanish and English for students and teachers from across the Americas. Our virtual hybrid programming incorporates interactive hands-on science experiments and activities as participants are provided with STEAM kits of supplies to enable teachers and students to perform these activities from home along with online instructors.

In 2021, the Institute will be launching its first cross-border STEAM Lab to engage students in the San Diego-Baja California border region.

The Institute of the Americas is governed by a diverse Board of Directors that includes respected business and civic leaders with on-going professional and personal ties across Latin America and the Caribbean. The Institute’s staff members have proven expertise on policy and regulatory issues in the areas of the environment, and STEAM education to further the organization’s mission. The Institute’s staff is complimented by non-resident fellows from throughout the Americas that include former policymakers, regulators and experts in the fields of energy and STEAM education.

The Institute of the Americas assets currently total nearly $14.2 million. These charitable asserts are professionally managed to safeguard principal with endowment assets providing annual distributions to for operations and programs of the Institute. Oversight of the Institute’s assets is provided by a volunteer Endowment & Finance Committee of the board which includes financial and investment experts.

Institute of Americas has made the following progress with its key programs and initiatives during 2020:

ENERGY & SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM:
• 2 Major Conferences: The La Jolla Energy conference attended by over 500 participants and the Madrid Energy Conference attended by over 400 participants.
• 14 Webinars: on topics ranging from energy transition, renewable energy, COVID-19 impacts on regional oil and gas sector, energy security in the Caribbean, critical minerals and social-risk management in Colombia.
• 8 policy papers published: on a range of topics including: the strategic and economic arguments for renewable energy in Mexico; energy security in the Caribbean Post COVID-19; COVID-19 and Latin America’s Energy Sector; Baja California Energy Outlook 2020-2025; Mexico Energy Outlook 2020; Natural Gas Southern Cone Dynamics and Developments, Guyana’s Gas-to-Power Potential as well as a forthcoming publication on China’s Energy Ambitions in Latin America.
• 2 successful institutional collaborations: with the Colorado School of Mine’s Payne Institute and the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center.
• Energy Ambassador’s program: to promote energy literacy in Baja California, Mexico.

STEAM EDUCATION INITIATIVE:

• 10 Countries: participating in STEAM programs over the past 12 years including Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

• 3 virtual STEAM programs: successfully organized including two STEAM labs for secondary school students from Mexico and one professional workshop for educators in response to COVID-19.

• Teacher training workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina in early 2020 in collaboration with the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE).

As we move forward, the STEAM Program will be developing greater synergies with the Institute’s other programming areas such as energy, renewable energy, biotech, environment, and climate change to develop programming more directly related to human capital and workforce development given the growing gap, need and opportunity for jobs to be filled in these sectors.

We plan to utilize an e-learning platform to provide asynchronous and at times synchronous STEAM programming to a wide audience across the Americas and to partner with other entities which are expert in specific sciences to deliver high quality programming and broader and deeper programming.

We plan to develop additional relationships with in-country partners to deliver in-person programming in more countries across the Americas.

The Institute of Americas plans to continue strengthening and expanding the above mentioned programs and initiatives in 2021.