Ramon Mendez-Galain
speaker
85 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 17 Jul
Ramon Mendez-Galain’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Yes, this is what we need to do all over the world in order to face climate change.
This is paradise and we have to recognize it.
Our economy was growing too fast and the demand was growing very fast.
15 years ago, the Uruguayan energy sector was going through a deep crisis.
economy was growing at unprecedented rates, and poverty was increasing.
It was so great, of course, but at the same time, energy demand was growing rapidly, which was not so great.
Uruguay has no proven reserve for fossil fuels.
We have already used our large rivers to install hydropower plants.
And our two neighbors were having their own difficulties to supply internal demand, so it was not easy for them to help us.
In dry years, when you have to import much more fossil fuels, or we're forced to import electricity from our neighbors at extraordinary prices, cost overruns could be as high as $1 billion.
And for a small economy like Uruguay, this is 2% of its GDP.
And we're still beginning to have blackouts.
We're living the perfect storm.
But crisis is also opportunity.
So I dramatically changed my work and I began to be involved in the energy issue.
This is what I did.
After writing my thoughts in the paper, I ended up with a comprehensive proposal for what my country could do in order to be aware of these difficulties.
And the surprise was that these proposals had reached my president of my country.
And one day, me as a simple university professor, I received a phone call inviting me to be the political responsible of our energy agency.
And, well, I did something crazy.
Showing 1–20 of 85 · page 1 of 5
Next →