Colombia

Colombia ranks 27th in this year’s CCPI, dropping two places from the previous year. Colombia shows a mixed performance across the CCPI categories, with a high in Energy Use, medium for GHG Emissions and Climate Policy, and low for Renewable Energy. All these ratings are the same as last year.

While Colombia generally performs well in the indicators measuring the current levels, with a high for the GHG per Capita indicator (and a very high for the Energy Use per Capita indicator), the country performs considerably worse in the indicators for future targets.

New president plans to shift the economy

Gustavo Petro was elected as Colombia’s new president in May 2022. Petro said he wanted to end new fossil fuel exploration, phase out fossil fuel use, and protect the Amazon rainforest. In his manifesto, he promised a shift from an extractive, fossil-based economy to a diversified economy based on renewable energy.

Colombia is the country with the most deaths of environmental defenders (according to Global Witness), and environmental activists hope for greater safety after the change of government, considering the new vice president Francia Marquez is an environmental activist.

The CCPI experts welcome the increased political interest in climate change after the government change, as well as new regulations, but they criticise inefficiency in the information, monitoring, and evaluation system.

Key Outcomes

CCPI experts

National experts that contributed to the policy evaluation of this year’s CCPI chose to remain anonymous.