Candidates have so far offered various ideas for the environmental agenda, but given \u201cfew structured proposals on how they would be carried out\u201d, according to Camilo Prieto, a renowned environmentalist and professor at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogot\u00e1. The key challenges, he says, are to \u201cprioritise biodiversity, change the militaristic approach [to environmental protection] and fight against extensive cattle ranching \u2013 the main driver of tropical forest deforestation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manuel Rodr\u00edguez Becerra, environment minister during the presidency of C\u00e9sar Gaviria (1990\u20131994), told Di\u00e1logo Chino that \u201cthe only two candidates who have articulated well-elaborated proposals along these lines are Petro and Fajardo\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Colombia’s critical elections, we take a closer look at the environmental leanings and proposals of the four leading candidates.<\/p>\n
Gustavo Petro<\/h2>\n
Pacto Hist\u00f3rico coaltion<\/em><\/p>\n Petro, leader of the left-wing Colombia Humana party and a former mayor of Bogot\u00e1, has made the fight against climate change one of the pillars of his campaign proposals<\/a>. He proposes to suspend oil exploration, accelerate the energy transition<\/a> and take tougher action to confront the growth of deforestation.<\/p>\n Andr\u00e9s Felipe P\u00e1ez, a member of the campaign team of the Pacto Hist\u00f3rico \u2013 the poll-leading coalition of 20 left and centre-left parties \u2013 told Di\u00e1logo Chino that they will prioritise \u201cordering the country around the protection of water \u2013 understood as a fundamental right \u2013 strengthening the systems of regional protection of ecosystems, and the promotion of the energy transition.\u201d<\/p>\n In the fight against deforestation, Petro\u2019s proposal document points to greater controls against extensive cattle ranching. P\u00e1ez explains that they are analysing the option of restricting the sale and commercialisation of livestock products produced in growing areas of deforestation.<\/p>\n On energy, P\u00e1ez affirms that the bet is \u201ctowards a society moved by nature, without extracting natural elements from the soil, moving from extractivism to other energies\u201d. But in this regard, Petro has been criticised<\/a> for his intention to end oil exploration in the country without clearly laying out how he would phase it out in a country that depends heavily on oil exports.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Gustavo Petro\u2019s pick of renowned environmentalist Francia M\u00e1rquez<\/a> for his running mate, and prospective vice-president evidenced the increasing commitment to environmental issues in his plans. M\u00e1rquez won the 2018 Goldman Prize, often dubbed the Nobel Prize for the environment. Her tireless activism has seen her take on struggles for women\u2019s rights and racial justice, and lead campaigns against mining activities. \u201cWe are part of nature, not owners of it\u201d, one of her own campaign slogans says.<\/p>\n Ancestral knowledge is recognised as an asset for environmental conservation<\/p><\/blockquote>\n For Manuel Rodr\u00edguez Becerra, Petro’s proposals are \u201caccurate and ambitious”. He recalls that when Petro was mayor of Bogota (2012-2015) he presented similarly structured<\/a> proposals but was unable to implement them in their entirety. Petro was removed<\/a> from office in December 2013 and barred from holding public office for 15 years for alleged irregularities in the reform of the city’s waste collection system. However, he managed to retain his position after the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) suspended his dismissal as a \u201cprecautionary measure\u201d. The IACHR eventually ruled<\/a> in his favor in 2020, leaving the disqualification without effect.<\/p>\n The 2022 campaign is Petro\u2019s third run at the presidency. He lost in the second round in 2018<\/a> to incumbent Iv\u00e1n Duque, and received just 9% of the vote in Colombia’s 2010 elections.<\/p>\n Equipo por Colombia coalition<\/em><\/p>\n Guti\u00e9rrez is the leader of a coalition of five centre-right and right-wing parties. He is second in the polls and seen as offering continuity for the current government\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n 171,685<\/p>\n In his proposed government plan<\/a>, he promises to promote alternative development pathways such as pursuing green hydrogen and the circular economy, using economic incentives. He will focus on reducing Colombia\u2019s annual rate of deforestation from over 171,000 hectares in 2020, the last full year for which data is available, to 54,000 by the end of his four-year term. This will enable the country to get half way to the goal of zero deforestation by 2030, he says. His plan also proposes to make further forays into the global market of payment for environmental services<\/a> (PES), as an option for indigenous and peasant communities working in ecological restoration.<\/p>\n Guti\u00e9rrez has been firm on the eradication of illegal mining, pledging to crack down with military force. He also agrees with the current government in identifying criminal networks<\/a> that profit from illicit coca cultivation as those primarily responsible<\/a> for deforestation.<\/p>\n Coalici\u00f3n Centro Esperanza<\/em><\/p>\n Fajardo, who fronts a coalition of progressive centre-left parties contesting Colombia’s elections, is considered the greenest candidate. He proposes<\/a> increasing the use of renewable energies, restoring one million hectares of forest, updating the mining census and basing the country\u2019s development on an economy linked to value chains that conserve heritage and biodiversity.<\/p>\n The candidate, a former mayor of Medell\u00edn running in his second presidential election, told Di\u00e1logo Chino that Colombia is \u201cthe most biodiverse country in the world per square metre and, for this reason, our government programme is based on this wealth. We propose multiple strategies so that our development model will be one of bioeconomy, biotechnology, growth and green jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that he hopes to count on the participation of indigenous communities in this process: \u201cAncestral knowledge is recognised as an asset for environmental conservation.\u201d\u00a0 He also proposes to work on the National Environmental Zoning Plan, which categorise territory that is off-limits for development projects, thereby better guiding investment, and to increase the area of the country\u2019s PES programmes by an additional 300,000 hectares.<\/p>\n Fajardo\u2019s vice-presidential running mate is Luis Gilberto Murillo, a former Minister of Environment during the presidency of Juan Manuel Santos (2010\u20132018). At an environmental forum at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogot\u00e1, Murillo criticised the mining model in Colombia, identifying it as \u201ca completely extractive scheme in which wealth does not settle in the regions and destroys communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Murillo also proposed strengthening voluntary carbon markets, restricting livestock development, channelling those profits to communities, and closing<\/a> the agricultural frontier, \u201cas established in the peace accords\u201d that were signed in 2016 and brought an end to a more than half-century long civil conflict.<\/p>\n Liga de Gobernantes Anticorrupci\u00f3n<\/em><\/p>\n 76-year-old Hern\u00e1ndez has focused on cleaning-up politics in campaigns prior to Colombia’s elections. As an independent leading a centrist \u201canti-corruption league\u201d, is a well-known construction businessman and former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga. In a recent televised pre-election debate, he said that he will seek to meet with successful businessmen who are \u201ccommitted to climate change and global warming\u201d.<\/p>\n He intends to design \u201can environmentally friendly policy\u201d, in search of more energy alternatives that \u201cin the long term will eliminate dependence on the fossil extractive industry\u201d. However, Hern\u00e1ndez has not specified how he will do so.<\/p>\n He promises harsher sanctions against people who commit ecological crimes, as well as strengthening environmental authorities, so that they can exercise their functions \u201cwith the authority and security that will allow them to effectively prosecute the criminals of mining and deforestation\u201d.<\/p>\n On his campaign site<\/a>, Hern\u00e1ndez includes environmental proposals, such as promoting energy alternatives, typifying environmental crimes in the penal code, ratifying international treaties such as the Nagoya Protocol and the Escaz\u00fa Agreement<\/a>. However, it does not mention anything about their implementation. He also suggests \u201cforcing mining multinationals to operate in Colombia as they do in their countries of origin\u201d. Similar to other candidates, he has proposed PES, suggesting the provision of a basic income to those who work in forest protection, and paying local people for their work in \u201cproducing oxygen\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With only a few weeks left before the first round of elections, the main candidates have laid out few proposals to safeguard biodiversity or promote the energy transition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000004,"featured_media":50053122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761],"tags":[531,50029993,17073,580,585],"hashtags":[],"country":[50000025],"class_list":["post-50053116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-deforestation","tag-elections","tag-energy-transition","tag-policy","tag-renewables","country-colombia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Ivan](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Ivan-Duque-Colombia-gas-natual_Hannah-McKay_Alamy_2H4D26M-1-1-scaled.jpg\")
Federico Guti\u00e9rrez<\/h2>\n
\nhectares were deforested in Colombia in 2020
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\nSergio Fajardo<\/h2>\n
Rodolfo Hern\u00e1ndez<\/h2>\n