The COP16 / COP29 double header is over, bookending the US presidential and congressional elections, perhaps the most significant event in climate policy in recent memory. What, if anything, are the implications for the planet and for Colombia.
Read moreThe obvious answer is yes. Eventually. Unless President Gustavo Petro is right, and the world comes to an end in 2030. (He did not provide a precise date so we recommend being prepared for everything to still be around until at least December 31st, 2030, just in case.) But many have doubts that the government will achieve its goals for the period 2022 to 2026. A recent article by Bloomberg Linea tries to address the issue.
Read moreWe return to the book The Price is Wrong by Brett Christophers to look at his conclusions and recommendations as well as the implications for Colombia and President Gustavo Petro’s policies.
Read moreI am reading a new book by geographer, Brett Christophers, called The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet. He argues that, despite their now low theoretical cost per kilowatt-hour, solar and wind power, will not achieve investor profitability targets, resulting in under investment, certainly insufficient investment to displace fossil-fuel-based generation. That means either governments must continue to subsidize solar and wind power or – probably Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s preferred solution – state-owned enterprises will transform the energy matrix.
Read moreePC readers know our skepticism about Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s idea of doing away with utility companies, generating all power with rooftop solar. National newspaper El Tiempo picked up a Washington Post article about a “zero electricity bill” community in Florida (Hunters Point) so we thought we would have a look again at the topic.
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Recently national newspaper El Espectador published a syndicated article about leveraging Just Energy Transition Partners (JETP) to Latin America. JETP offers funding to emerging markets countries to accelerate their energy transition. Would this work for Colombia?
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Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been doing the rounds of multilateral organizations saying that countries, like his, which steward resources that mitigate climate change (like the Amazon rainforest) should have their debt forgiven. The reception has been tepid at best and we expressed skepticism. Now a study by the French central bank casts further doubt on the concept.
Read moreJaime Pumarejo, mayor of Barranquilla, wants a law in Congress to lower rates in the coast which he claims are “inequitable and illegal.”
Read moreAlthough Colombia has a system of cross-subsidies these are insufficient to cover the shortfall for low-income families and the government of the day must write checks to the electricity distributors. José Camilo Manzur, president of the distributors’ industry association, Asocodis, estimates this could amount to CoP$2T by the end of 2023.
Read moreThe International Geothermal Association (IGA) invited all stakeholders from the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region to submit their geothermal direct use projects.
Read moreThe government wants to get backlogged energy projects from previous auctions into operation, but some of these may be unfeasible.
Read moreDuring the electricity tariff debate, several commentators said that the solution to the problem was for everyone to generate their own power with solar panels. A chicken in every pot and a solar panel on every rooftop.
Read moreNo I’m not referring to the pundits’ comments after Sunday’s presidential election round one, although I will briefly comment at the end, if only to bring last week’s pre-election Thursday Thought to a close.
Read moreI was struck by an article we published this week about a shopping mall which was ‘going green’. They were investing CoP$3B (about US$750,000) to build 7,800 square meters of rooftop solar panels that were going to produce just under 500 KWp. And all this effort was only going to offset about 20% of the mall’s electricity. That seems like a lot of effort for very little. I got to wondering about scale and how much it would take to offset Colombia’s fossil fuel-produced thermo-generation with solar.
Read moreColombia is advancing in the energy transition process, but this process has presented several challenges and one of the main ones is project financing.
Read moreValerie Smith, Citigroup's Chief Sustainability Officer, spoke about sustainable financing in the country.
Read moreColombia’s Foreign Trade Bank (Bancoldex) issued a new credit line to promote investment in sustainable projects.
Read moreAuthorities confirmed a CoP$24B loan to develop a solar park in the department of Meta. Here are the details.
Read moreColombia aims to accelerate the diversification of its energy matrix with a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Here is how.
Read moreThe Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas), María Fernanda Suárez, took the stage of the Construyendo País Forum (literally: ‘Building Country’), to talk about energy projects in the department.
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The Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) will bring energy service to vulnerable families in La Guajira, with the help of firms that develop sustainable self-generation energy projects. Here are the details.
Read moreThe program is developed together with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the government of Denmark.
Read moreThe Colombian government has allocated a large amount of resources to help solve the Electricaribe operational and financial crisis. The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) together with the Superintendence of Services (Superservicios) announced measures to guarantee transparency in the use of these resources.
Read moreThe Energy Mining Planning Unit (UPME) extended the deadline for the country’s long-term energy auctions until January 31st, 2019.
Read moreThe National Development Bank (FDN) is working on a project to boost the use of renewable energies in the country. Here are the details
Read moreThe government continues to make decisions to solve the Electricaribe crisis and improve energy services on the Colombian coast. The National Development Fund (FDN) made a decision to help Electricaribe.
Read moreThe Electricaribe crisis has affected the energy supply on the Caribbean coast in the last years. The government has been working on alternatives to solve this crisis, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) spoke on the government's strategies for this issue.
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