- LACEC formally began its work in Colombia to bring together companies, developers, financiers, associations, and technical stakeholders around a shared agenda to accelerate the corporate clean energy market.
- The dialogue identified favorable conditions and concrete challenges: Colombia has a regulatory framework and financing options in place, but must speed up grid connection, strengthen industry confidence, and promote more flexible contracts, demand aggregation, and ESCO models.
- The next steps will be to build LACEC Colombia’s Work Agenda, prepare recommendations for the incoming government, and form a founding group to give continuity to the collaboration through thematic working groups and periodic meetings.
Bogotá, Colombia (July 22, 2026). The Latin America Clean Energy Coalition (LACEC) formally began its work in Colombia with a multisectoral dialogue aimed at identifying concrete solutions to accelerate the procurement of clean energy by companies in the country.
LACEC brings together corporate energy buyers, developers, financiers, associations, and strategic partners to drive business models that facilitate the acquisition of renewable energy, promote enabling regulatory frameworks, and connect experiences and lessons learned across countries. The coalition is initially focusing its work on Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
The meeting, convened by LACEC and WRI Colombia, brought together nearly 20 representatives from the industrial and commercial sector, energy companies, financial institutions, sector associations, think tanks, universities, and international cooperation organizations in Bogotá.
During the opening remarks, Fernando Páez, executive director of WRI Colombia, highlighted the importance of having spaces that allow different market actors to share perspectives, build trust, and move toward solutions grounded in technical understanding.
“Only by understanding the positions of the different actors can we build joint solutions, overcome existing barriers, and move forward on a clean energy market for Colombia,” said Páez.
For his part, Diego Merizalde, leader of the LACEC initiative, explained that the transformation of energy systems is making energy an increasingly decisive factor for Latin America’s competitiveness. Within this context, the coalition seeks to connect decarbonization with the productive needs of the industrial and commercial sector. “LACEC’s ambition is to combine two fundamental elements: the competitiveness of Latin American industry and its decarbonization, through deeper and more dynamic clean energy markets.”
Opportunities to Strengthen the Colombian Market
The working groups recognized that Colombia has a favorable regulatory framework and financing alternatives to expand the corporate clean energy market. However, challenges remain related to delays in grid connection, the need to strengthen industry confidence in renewable energy, and the development of energy service models that reduce investment barriers.
Opportunities were also identified to establish more flexible Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), explore innovation in this type of contract, promote demand aggregation schemes, and deepen the market for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). Participants also emphasized the importance of engaging communities, adapting successful experiences from other markets, and strengthening a more active role for the private sector.
In this context, LACEC can facilitate coordination among companies, national and subnational governments, financiers, technical organizations, and communities to build long-term solutions and a shared agenda for the country, drawing, for example, on successful experiences from other countries where the initiative is present.
LACEC’s Next Steps in Colombia
Building on the input from the meeting, LACEC will design and validate a work agenda for Colombia, organized around the priorities identified by participants. The coalition will also prepare a policy brief for the incoming national government, with recommendations aimed at strengthening the industrial and commercial clean energy market.
At the same time, work will continue on forming LACEC Colombia’s founding group, made up of companies, associations, financiers, and other organizations interested in participating. This group will operate through periodic sessions and thematic working groups to turn the agenda into action and to give continuity to the dialogue begun at the launch.
The meeting thus marks the beginning of a collaborative process aimed at turning the opportunities in the Colombian market into concrete solutions for a more competitive, resilient, and decarbonized industry.