Kerry to hemisphere’s leaders: Energy is the future

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Latin American leaders Tuesday that their future will be determined by the choices they make regarding energy resources.

Giving introductory remarks for Thursday’s U.S.-Caribbean-Central American Energy Summit, Kerry praised a historic Paris climate agreement aimed at curbing the pace of global warming and called it an “enormous signal” about the future.

“The choices we make with respect to energy will define whether your country is up and down, where it is going,” he said. “Is it moving in the right direction or if it’s moving in the wrong direction.”

He also warned, however, that dropping commodity prices posed an economic challenge for Latin American countries, many of whose economies are dependent on the sale of raw materials to China and the industrialized world.

Breaking that dependency means Latin American nations must embrace trade, encourage entrepreneurship and combat corruption. “Now, more than ever, citizens are making clear that corruption is not going to be tolerated,” Kerry said.

His remarks at the State Department served a dual purpose, opening the energy conference and closing the 46th annual Washington Conference on the Americas, an event hosted by the Council for the Americas that brought together foreign dignitaries and U.S. policymakers and business leaders. Speakers included Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas and Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan-American Health Organization.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Kerry to hemisphere’s leaders: Energy is the future."