OBELA Analysis

On 23 June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom (UK) decided to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum by a margin of less than 2%. After more than four years of negotiations, the Brexit transition period ended on 1 January 2021. The UK's exit from the European Union implies changes in the structure of the world economy.

During the Brexit negotiations, in parallel it signed 59 trade agreements with non-European countries, including the UK-Japan agreement. In Latin America, it also reaffirmed the partners it had via the EU. A key element in the Brexit free trade agreement is that it did not incorporate financial services.

The project of British reindustrialisation and economic independence from Europe, via Brexit, has encountered significant limits in the very high financialisation of its economy, its deep trade dependence and its lack of productive competitiveness.

With the recent formalisation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has the opportunity to access the world's largest economic bloc. It is an opportunity and an alternative for LAC blocs to coordinate and use this new market as a catapult for recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. 

However, in the two centuries of LAC's history, repeated efforts at economic integration and multilateral cooperation have failed to materialise into a project.  Integration has been truncated by a combination of internal factors such as the conflict between the primary-export and industrial sectors and the principle of due obedience that obliges Pan-Americanism.

Ecuador is the most recent example of US interference in the internal politics of the region's countries.

Hydrogen is considered a renewable energy source option and the route to follow in the change of the energy matrix to replace gas at industrial level and to be used in fuel cells for transport vehicles and to generate other fuels. Hydrogen production for energy purposes is classified into 5 colours, 4 by origin and one by treatment. There is grey, brown, black, green and blue hydrogen.

Using hydrogen as a key energy carrier will require a huge increase in production volume and a new and complex infrastructure to supply it to users. Countries with wind, solar and hydropower infrastructure will have a competitive advantage in green hydrogen production.

Green hydrogen is the best fuel option we have towards environmental recovery and several projects have been implemented in the Latin American and Caribbean region to produce sustainable energy with the intention of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.