The international seminar “Combustibles del Futuro” (Fuels of the Future), held in Viña del Mar, brought together leaders from the global energy industry to discuss how to scale the development of new sustainable solutions worldwide.

The shared diagnosis was that, despite technological progress in aviation and heavy transport, barriers in cost, infrastructure and regulation persist on the path toward the large-scale implementation needed to drive the energy transition.

Roberto Angelini, Chairman of Fundación Copec-UC, highlighted the importance of approaching this process with a long-term vision: “The energy transition will require multiple solutions with a technologically neutral and practical outlook. Electrification will be essential, but it will not solve every challenge on its own.” He added that “speaking of the fuels of the future is not speaking of a distant possibility, but of a tangible necessity.”

International participants included Diego Hernández, partner at McKinsey & Company; Anant Patel, global chief of Biofeed sourcing at ExxonMobil; Bella Zhang, head of Global SAF Strategy and Vice President of Envision; and Tim Böltken, CEO and co-founder of Ineratec, who agreed that Chile has a significant opportunity if it can put in place the enabling conditions for the development of this industry.