Santiago, Chile - August 26, 2025 - Leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) met in Santiago for the Seventh Regional Committee Meeting of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), reaffirming the region’s commitment to accelerate solar adoption through regional cooperation and concrete action.

The meeting, hosted by the Government of Chile, came at a pivotal moment for both ISA and the LAC region. Since 2021, ISA membership in the region has grown by 50 percent, with 26 countries now part of the Alliance. This expansion reflects the rising recognition of ISA as a global platform that mobilises finance, drives innovation, and strengthens the technical and institutional capacities needed to accelerate the energy transition.

ISA’s growing role:

ISA’s Director General, Ashish Khanna, underlined the Alliance’s leading role in the region’s clean energy future. “With 26 countries in the LAC region now part of ISA, the momentum is clear,” he said. “From joint procurement platforms for small islands to Centres of Excellence and stronger private sector partnerships, this is a shift from ambition to action. Together we are building a competitive, resilient, and sustainable solar future.”

Khanna highlighted four priorities for ISA’s work in the region: mobilising catalytic finance, scaling innovation, strengthening institutional capacity, and enabling regional platforms.

Chile and Grenada set the tone:

In his welcome remarks, Diego Pardow Lorenzo, Chile’s Minister of Energy, emphasised the lessons of Chile’s own renewable journey. “Clean energy, supported by long-term contracts and private investment, can lower costs, boost resilience, and empower communities,” he said. “Our task now is to ensure these benefits reach our most vulnerable households. Regional cooperation through ISA is essential if we want to scale technologies and share knowledge.”

Kerryne Zennelle James, Minister for Climate Resilience, the Environment and Renewable Energy of Grenada, chaired the meeting in her role as Vice President of the ISA LAC Region. She praised the region’s leadership—65 percent of its power already comes from renewables, double the global average—while also warning of uneven progress. “Small island states like Grenada face particular challenges,” she said. “ISA’s strategic shift from ambition to action is timely. This Regional Committee is the platform we need to align our priorities and unlock collective progress.”

New initiatives announced:

Several key announcements emerged from the meeting:

• Grenada–ISA Country Partnership Framework: A roadmap for collaboration on regulation, technology deployment, and capacity building, marking the first such framework in the Caribbean.
• SIDS Solar Platform: Nine Caribbean nations signed a declaration of intent to launch a joint procurement and capacity-building platform with ISA and the World Bank, aiming to lower technology costs and expand access.
• MoU with OLADE: Strengthening cooperation on climate-aligned finance, policy harmonisation, and solar deployment in agriculture, mobility, and storage.
• MoU with OECS: Advancing solar deployment in the Eastern Caribbean with a focus on resilience, energy access, and technical assistance.

Innovation through SolarX:

The meeting also spotlighted entrepreneurship. The SolarX Startup Challenge for LAC, which closed its application phase on 15 August, attracted dozens of innovators offering scalable solar solutions for local needs. Winners will be announced at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, later this year.

“SolarX is about finding local solutions that are innovative, affordable, and practical,” said Khanna. “It is not just a competition; it is a way to build capacity and strengthen ecosystems that will keep delivering long after the challenge ends.”

A call for global solidarity:

The session concluded with a powerful call from Paulo Roberto Soares Pacheco, Brazil’s Ambassador to Chile and representative of the incoming COP30 Presidency. He invoked the Brazilian concept of mutirão—a community-led effort to solve challenges collectively.

“Energy access and affordability are inseparable from human development,” he said. “What we need now is a global mutirão—a collective mobilization across borders to accelerate the energy transition.”

A regional vision with global resonance:

For ISA, the meeting in Santiago was more than a regional gathering—it was a demonstration of how collective action can scale solutions to match the urgency of climate change. As Khanna noted, “ISA was created to drive down the cost of solar, unlock finance, and make technology accessible to all. The LAC region is now showing the world that when we work together, solar ambition can be turned into solar action.”

For complete information, visit: https://isa.int/solarx

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