GreeNet

The sustainability challenge

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As Europe’s sustainability transition requires substantial renewables and natural resources, the region depends on resilient international partnerships for critical raw materials and green technologies. Latin America plays a central role as an emerging co-designer of global sustainability strategies. Whereas extant research has tended to frame Latin America primarily as a supplier of raw materials for Europe’s energy transition or as a set of “sacrifice zones” suffering the ecological and social consequences of mining, this project aims to examine the actual forms of economic cooperation between Europe and Latin America. In recent years, the relationship between the two regions has evolved from a neoliberal trade framework toward a strategic partnership based on reciprocity and reliability. At the same time, Latin American countries are advancing their own ambitious sustainability agendas. Chile, for example, has developed a national strategy for exporting various forms of renewable energy, positioning itself as a potential technology leader in sustainable industry (SDG 9). As a result, the structure of cooperation—ranging from technology development and deployment to trade and supply-chain relations—has been transformed, driven by the expansion of renewable energy and by increasing demands for sustainable resource use.

A survey of intercontinental value chains

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GreeNet is funded by the LMU Sustainability Fund and associated with LMU Network for Latin America. It aims at delivering the first systematic mapping of firm-level cooperation and supplier relations in global value chains between Germany and Latin America in areas of renewable energy, critical minerals, and green technology. Over the course of their many years of work, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy (StMWi) and the Bavarian representative office in Latin America have created comprehensive company registers (including Key to Bavaria) with contacts to well over 10,000 decision-makers, mainly in companies, but also in science and politics. These contacts are used for an electronic survey to be conducted simultaneously in Bavaria and southern Latin America in 2026. This ntercontinental survey explores and visualizes the supply-chain linkages and cooperation relations as well as their contribution to innovation and sustainability.

GreeNet ist part of the GIST Hub, the strategic partnership between LMU and UC Chile in the area of governance and innovation research on sustainability transitions.

Support policies for sustainability transitions

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This interdisciplinary project is realized in collaboration between The LMU Chair for Economic Geographies of the Future ( Prof. Johannes Glückler) and the LMU Institute for Innovation Management (Prof. Dr. Jelena Spanjol) to build an integrated model of how intra- and interorganizational processes shape sustainable value chains, and how they foster innovation and sustainability transitions in both, Germany and Latin America. The two chair teams work together to develop action approaches for both business firms and political decision-makers in Bavaria and Latin America on how to promote and improve the sustainability of international cooperation in the context of raw material and energy-related industries and technologies. Ultimately, being anchored in the global sustainability agenda, the project advances SDG 9 by providing an empirical basis for targeted policies that support inclusive, sustainable industrial development and cross-regional innovation.

GreeNet is supported by several partners, including BAYLAT, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, the GIST Hub and the LMU Network for Latin America.