China Stakes Its Claim in Latin American Energy:

executive order in 2017 creating a U.S. strategy that would ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals. The plan, which includes recommendations and action items to reduce the United States’ “vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals.” Actions include finding ways to reduce or eliminate the use of cobalt in Lithium batteries, recycle and recover components, improve manufacturing efficiency and promote sustainable mining in the United States. 23 The U.S. strategy also called for increased cooperation with allied countries, particularly with Canada and Mexico. New investments in the Western Hemisphere’s mining sector, as well as cooperation with allies like Western Europe, Japan and South Korea, form part of the effort to counterbalance China’s dominant role in critical minerals. In 2019, the U.S. State Department created the Energy Resource Governance Initiative to help allied countries mine critical minerals sustainably. 24 Peru is a founding partner of the initiative, and Argentina and Brazil are participants. The program promotes sustainable mining through a roadmap and toolkit that includes best practices and lessons learned.

2020. 25 América Crece is “an innovative, whole-of- government approach to support economic development by catalyzing private sector investment in energy and other infrastructure projects across Latin America and the Caribbean,” 26 according to the U.S. State Department. It aims to support economic development through job creation and infrastructure projects in the LAC region. The initiative was developed after the U.S. government realized that LAC suffers from a severe shortfall in infrastructure investment. The region needs between $100 billion and $150 billion in new annual infrastructure investment to help spur economic growth and meet the needs of burgeoning populations. At first, América Crece focused mainly on energy sector infrastructure. However, China’s investments in the region – including BRI outlays - cover energy infrastructure, telecommunications, ports, highways, and airports. As a result, América Crece moved to cover those areas as well, with emphasis on energy infrastructure. According to the U.S. State Department, América Crece will initially focus on Central America, at the risk of missing opportunities in other areas like South America, where China is very active.

Another U.S. initiative is América Crece (Growth in the Americas), which was officially launched in September

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