Rome, December 2nd, 2020 – Sharing experiences, projects and best practices for the promotion and development of circular cities in Latin America: this is the goal of the letter of intent signed today by IILA, Organizzazione Internazionale Italo-Latino Americana (International Italo-Latin American Organization) and Enel Américas represented respectively by IILA Secretary General, Antonella Cavallari, and by Enel's Head of Latin America, Maurizio Bezzeccheri, in the presence of Enel's President Michele Crisostomo and the Pro-Tempore President of IILA Roberto Carlos Melgarejo. The partnership aims at spreading throughout Latin America knowledge and awareness of the subject and at accelerating the transition to circular urbanization models, centered on the application of the principles of circular economy to all sectors involved in the sustainable development of cities, facilitating economic competitiveness, technological innovation, environmental sustainability and social inclusion - all topics at the center of both Enel's and IILA's agendas.
“Thanks to this alliance, we can accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable model in one of the most strategically important areas for Enel,” said Enel's Chairman Michele Crisostomo. “Urban centers are home to more than half of the world's population and must be the where the change happens, with the shift towards the circular city model. Cities will have to reinvent themselves through innovative solutions to address to the social, economic and environmental challenges that cities are dealing with today, with the aim to offer to their communities an improved quality of life, and, to younger generations, spaces where the human element leaves a sustainable footprint.”
"We have no alternatives. We must now seize the opportunity to transform our lifestyles by making a concrete contribution, according to everyone’s possibilities and abilities," says IILA Secretary General Antonella Cavallari.
“Enel is the leader in the energy sector in Latin America and it is committed to facilitating the development of new models of sustainable business,” commented Maurizio Bezzeccheri, Enel's Head of Latin America. “This collaboration will enable us to further strengthen our actions in support of the energy transition, accelerating the growth of renewables, promoting smart electrical networks and the spread of public and private electric mobility in major Latin American cities.”
In particular, the synergies that today's agreement intends to promote regard: the initiatives that IILA is developing together with Symbola with the Ciudades Verdes project, which aims to strengthen institutional networks and develop governance mechanisms to support the transformation of "model" locations in Latin America; the sharing of the best practices which the Enel Group is developing on a global scale; the identification of priorities to define a strategic circular economy agenda in Latin America; the definition of guidelines that promote the transition towards a circular economy model; initiatives for specialist technical training in circular economy and its dissemination; studies and analyses of circular cities, also benefiting from collaboration with other public and private players.
Today, in Latin America, almost 80% of the population lives in urban areas. Rethinking the development model therefore also requires a reorganization of urban coexistence in a sustainable and circular way. Enel and IILA intend to collaborate more intensely and systematically precisely to respond in a concrete way to this environmental and social challenge.
Enel is a multinational power company and a leading integrated player in the global power, gas and renewables markets. It is the largest European utility by ordinary EBITDA, and is present in over 30 countries worldwide, producing energy with over 87 GW of installed capacity. Enel distributes electricity through a network of over 2.2 million kilometers, and with more than 74 million business and household end users globally, the Group has the largest global customer base among its European peers. Enel’s renewables arm Enel Green Power is the world’s largest renewable private player, with over 47 GW of wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower plants installed in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Enel X, Enel's global advanced energy services business line, is the worldwide demand response leader, with a total capacity of over 6 GW managed globally; the company has installed around 116 MW of storage capacity as well as, in the electric mobility sector, it has made available around 140,000 public and private EV charging points worldwide.
IILA is the only international organization that, since 1966, has united Italy with the 20 countries of Latin America through economic, social, cultural, academic, scientific and technological collaboration projects as well as cooperation actions aimed at the achievement of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 2030, thanks also to ongoing and structured dialogue between delegates from its member countries which meet regularly at the Institute's Rome-based head office. A bridge which makes the ocean that lies between Europe and Latin America increasingly easier to cross.