RedER Chubut promotes the development of a Participatory Agenda for a Fair and Inclusive Energy Transition in Chubut

2025/05/21

As part of the RedER Chubut project: Fair and Inclusive Energy Transition for Family Farming, the webinar "Formulating a Participatory Agenda for a Fair and Inclusive Energy Transition for Family Farming in Chubut" was held with great participation. The virtual meeting brought together 65 people committed to an inclusive energy transition based on a territorial approach.

The event featured welcoming remarks from Chubut's Minister of Production, Laura Mirantes, who reaffirmed the province's commitment to an inclusive and sustainable energy transition. Also present were Mirko Schiavi, Undersecretary of Agriculture and Livestock, Eduardo Cittadini, Director of INTA's Southern Patagonia Regional Office, and Nicolás Nagahama, Director of the INTA Esquel Experimental Station, who highlighted the importance of coordinating efforts between the public sector, academia, and local producers.

On behalf of the Ibero-American Union of Municipalists (UIM), Edna Guidi Gutiérrez, Coordinator of Territorial Offices, provided a strategic vision for the development of inclusive agendas that promote a just transition at the local and regional level.

During the meeting, researchers and experts in territorial development from the UTN San Rafael, Sergio Pérez Rozzi and Luis Boccaccini, gave a presentation on how to formulate an Energy Transition Agenda for Family Farming from a territorial development perspective. In their remarks, they highlighted the key role of renewable energy in improving the sustainability of small producers, fostering inclusive economic development in rural communities. These actions are being developed by the RedER Project through Frutillas del Viento.

Next, Mijal Saz and Analía Álvarez, also from UTN San Rafael, presented the progress of the project's work schedule, detailing concrete proposals for forging strategic alliances between public, private, and community actors. In their remarks, they emphasized the importance of consolidating cooperation to facilitate producers' access to renewable technologies, financing, and technical assistance.

In the words of Luciana Proietti, executive director of 500RPM: “This is a development initiative that seeks to work on small-scale family farming because we believe that this is where the development of a truly equitable nation lies. Currently in our country, 60% of agricultural jobs are in family farming. Producers are the ones who can make our country a developed nation, including more technologies, infrastructure, and capabilities. We hope to implement this and other projects with more local and provincial stakeholders. We believe it is possible to dream big.”

This webinar kicks off the work to build the agenda, which will continue in the coming months with data collection, surveys, and visits for in-person interviews with key stakeholders in the province and municipalities, which will take place during the week of June 2-6. “We invite leaders of public and private organizations involved in the issue who have not yet been contacted to contact us, as we want to extend the broadest possible reach to achieve long-term sustainability,” Proietti emphasized.

The webinar is part of a series of training and collaborative initiatives promoted by the RedER Chubut project, an initiative led by the 500RPM Foundation together with the Ibero-American Union of Municipalists (UIM) and the Patagonia Natural Foundation, with funding from the European Union in Argentina. Access the webinar at the following links: