José Miguel Benavente, vice president of Corfo, and Demetrios Papathanasiou, global director of energy and extractive industries of the World Bank, signed an agreement to support green hydrogen initiatives in Chile under the name “Green Hydrogen Facility Project to support Green, Resilient and Inclusive Economic Development” as part of Chile’s attendance at the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP 27.
“This collaboration, which has been in the works for a while, will give us the backing we need to advance the Green Hydrogen agenda. In order for private companies to participate in the industry in the future, they will need to be able to count on the support of these international organizations through their windows, said Mario Marcel, Chile’s Minister of Finance, “These international organizations are going to contribute knowledge, resources, and also their experience in the link with the areas that cover the private sector in these institutions.”
Chile has had a National Green Hydrogen Strategy since 2020, with long-term ramifications for the country and the world. “We view the H2v sector as a crucial component to meet the difficulties of the nation’s decarbonization, to advance in terms of productivity sophistication and diversity, and as a source of inspiration for science and technology by connecting its deployment with local research and development. Because of this, we are developing several financial assistance mechanisms for both R&D&i and investment in successful H2v ventures, according to José Miguel Benavente, vice president of CORFO.
The priority granted to the Program to support the green hydrogen industry in Chile is ratified in the agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which is the second individual operating under the Conditional Credit Line for Investment Projects (CCLIP) for Productivity and Sustainable Development in Chile. A results-based investment loan with an IDB financing amount of up to $400 million will be used to pay for it.
The Program’s overall goal is to support the growth of Chile’s green hydrogen industry, boost investments in projects of this nature, enhance the labor, institutional, and innovation capacities that will enable the sector’s development, and support regional development in areas where green hydrogen production projects are installed.
With the aim of assisting in the growth of Chile’s green hydrogen sector (H2V), the project with the World Bank will first provide access to a loan for a total of US$150 million in 2023 and for US$200 million in a subsequent stage.
