“Engineers don’t set out to collude and conspire against the environment,” says former Secretary General of the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE), Francisco Gutierrez, “degradation results out of ignorance, ignorance about the impact that some of our actions will have.” If ignorance is the cause, knowledge is the basis for the cure.

That’s what a joint effort between the University of Calgary and Ecuador-based OLADE is counting on with their Energy and Environment project. With financial help from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the project is sending Canadian know-how to 26 OLADE member countries to improve the abilities of energy and environment academics, industry leaders and university students at the graduate level who one day may be among their country’s decision-makers.

OLADE was created in 1973 to coordinate all aspects of the region’s energy resources—extraction, marketing and protection of their resources. Growing threats to the environment since then convinced OLADE that environmental practices and regulations needed to be strengthened and harmonized among the region’s countries. But it was clear that these laws would only be as strong and effective as the people who write and enforce them.

To strengthen these people’s abilities, the University of Calgary developed a unique cross-disciplinary Masters of Science Degree in Environment and Energy involving six academic departments from the university. Highly qualified professors from Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela were brought in to teach the students in classrooms located at the OLADE headquarters in Quito, Ecuador.

Twenty-nine Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) students have received their Masters degrees. Three of them have continued on to PhDs at the University of Calgary. A number of students assumed positions of influence in the government and private sector upon their graduation – a key step in improving environmental practices. One Colombian graduate went on to become an Advisor to the Vice-Minister of Energy and another a Deputy Director in the Ministry of Mines and Energy. An Ecuadorian graduate is now the Head of Environment for the State Electrical Company, and another graduate from Guyana has become the Director of the Hydro-Energy Unit within that country’s energy agency.

Not only did the project develop skills, it also produced critical reference tools available for use by the private sector, governments and academics. These included:

• An inventory and database of existing environmental laws and regulations in the 26 OLADE member countries,
• A major report entitled Energy and Environmental Law in Latin America and the Caribbean: Legislative Inventory and Analysis,
• A kit that includes approaches to energy/environment law issues. These materials are of particular application for multinational companies in understanding the legislative climate of a country with which they seek to do business and to familiarize national governments as to neighbouring legislation.