How are the chessboard and governmental counters for electromobility in Latin America laid out?
Experts highlight the need for a hierarchy in state action and the public-private link. What is the best scheme? Miguel Pelayo Serna, lawyer and expert in economic regulation and Master in Public Policy at the University of Oxford, talks to Portal Movilidad about a question: Which sectors of the State should intervene for the proper development of electromobility?
In response, the lawyer breaks the board and shifts the focus from the “who” to the “how.”
“It is first necessary to reflect on the role of the state. It is thought of as the one that regulates, permits or prohibits things. Actually, it has an articulating role”, Pelayo maintains.
He adds, “The state does and should do many more things. It has a role as an articulator, bringing together sectors that do not see each other. For example, the transport sector and academia.”
Regarding the authorities’ role, he concludes that it is not only about “making laws and regulating,” and that although they have a monopoly on regulatory regulation, this is not the only thing they can do. In this sense, ministerial interrelation is key, and although there are many plausible actors and sectors to include in a framework, for Pelayo, the important thing is the hierarchy in this scheme.
“Who is in charge of the problem? A governance structure needs to be defined. This is effective when there is a clear order around macro, meso and more granular decision-makers.”
He then adds, “The more granular, the better because there is less chance of overlapping responsibilities.”
In relation to this, different national roadmaps assign specificity of actors around the responsibility for each action. Such is the case of the National Electromobility Strategy in Chile, the National Strategic Plan for Electric Mobility in the Dominican Republic and the National Electromobility Strategy for Ecuador.
How do you define who is hierarchising?
Miguel Pelayo considers it necessary to look for the ministry, body, or entity that has “more knowledge of the subject and competence, resources and capacity to order.”
Chile is one of the benchmark countries in Latin America in terms of electric mobility due to significant sales advances and the transition to this technology in public transport. In this case, the Ministry of Energy is leading the public sector intervention with Environment and Transport.
“This does not mean that they are the most appropriate. In European experiences, the Netherlands, for example, it was defined as prioritising articulation by including local governments,” explains the expert.
He adds, “There must be coordination because there is more than the environment, energy and transport. There are also telecommunications, labour and educational issues that need to be addressed.”
At the same time, Pelayo believes that the set-up should be “political-institutionally validated” to avoid competing visions and interventions between different portfolios.
The other “bastion” of electric mobility in Latin America is Colombia. There, the main government agencies involved in the electrification process are the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Ministry of Transport and the Mining and Energy Planning Unit.
Further north, in Mexico, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE in Spanish) has a strong presence in the electromobility initiative. This is explained by the position of the Mexican automotive industry and the geopolitical link between the country and its northern border: the United States.
The Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources are also involved.
On the other hand, in the case of the Dominican Republic, the main actions from the public sector towards zero-emission mobility emanate from the National Institute of Transit and Land Transport (INTRANT in Spanish), as well as (and this was the case in the last case), the Superintendence of Electricity, which regulates the provision of charging services.
Another dissimilar case is that of Uruguay, where electromobility policy finds political centrality in the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines.
Argentina, on the other hand, has a Ministry of Transport spearheading electromobility policy. However, this was not always the case: prior to the changes in the structure of the national cabinet, the Ministry of Production was at the centre of the radar.
And the private sector?
The lawyer places the private sector in the most “granular” part of the decision-making process. However, he asserts, “if there is no public-private partnership, there will be no development of electric mobility.”
“It is important to incorporate users in the strategies. In the Netherlands, for example, the government has an online platform to track user demand for charging infrastructure,” Pelayo explains.
He concludes: “This communication signals policymakers and the private sector to invest.”
