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Bogotá has hosted this Wednesday a conversation as urgent as it was unthinkable a few decades ago. The International Summit on Sustainability and Environmental Innovation has put on the table a central theme for the present and the future of the planet: sustainability. Nearly thirty high-level panelists detailed all the edges of a crucial term to face the climate crisis. “Today we are fighting to contain its effects and to try to regulate a world that has already changed,” argued Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s Minister of the Environment, in the opening talk. “The question is: How are we going to live as a society without the use of fossil fuels? The future may not be better, but we can make it more conscious, supportive, fair and inclusive,” she added.
Convinced that the transition requires innovation and environmental justice, Joseph Oughourlian, president of PRISA Media, emphasized the consensus around the existence of climate change that exists in Colombia; a reality that is not shared on the continent. For Laura Chinchilla, former president of Costa Rica, this is one of the biggest alerts: “Denialism and populism are the biggest threats. Sustainable development is a viable option that interests all of Latin America. If it was possible in my country, it can also be achieved in others. We have everything it takes to do that.”
Denial, fossil fuels, biodiversity, education and the role of the private sector were the main topics of the six conversations of this great event, organized by PRISA Media and Santillana together with the Externado de Colombia University, the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Cundinamarca (CAR) and CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. Pepa Bueno, director of the newspaper EL PAÍS, and Juan Carlos Mora, president of Bancolombia, elaborated on the role of companies in the energy transition. Asked if it is profitable to promote sustainable economic development, the manager replied that a balance must be found between economic, social and environmental objectives: “The way to last over time is the balance between these three variables. And from the economic point of view it is not about earning less, but about earning just enough. No more no less”.
The challenge of education for sustainable development was another of the key pillars of the largest sustainability summit in Latin America. In the region that took the longest to return to face-to-face classes after the pandemic and the continent that accumulates the greatest learning losses, the challenges are many. In a conversation moderated by Diana Calderón, MD and Hora 20 director of Caracol radio, much of the debate revolved around technology and how to turn it into an ally.
“Political decisions prevailed to distribute devices before knowing if the connectivity was good or if the content was relevant to upload it to digital platforms,” said Rosa Junquera, director of Sustainability at PRISA. 40% of the Latin American population does not have access to connectivity or electronic devices. That is why Carolina Montes, director of the Department of Environmental Law at the Externado University, also emphasized the need to update teachers’ pedagogical strategies: “We have to make sure that they are up to date with the demands of the students , of those who have access to the internet and of those who do not”. “We arrived at sustainability by innovating and on the basis of trials and errors. We have to be more pioneers and less sheep,” added Mauricio López, director of the Global Compact Colombia.
“Consumers are essential in the transition”
Ricardo Roa, president of Ecopetrol, stressed the company’s commitment to sustainability, also focusing on customers: “Consumer demand is essential in the process. They are the ones who decide whether or not to make this transition.” Although the Colombian recalled the sustainability goals of the firm, that in 2040 alternative energies represent 35%, 20% more than the current one, he was also emphatic in maintaining support for conventional energies: “To the traditional business of We are going to protect fossil fuels, because that is the main source of resources for the transition. They account for 80% of the income”.
The idea that everyone – civil society, the private sector and governments – have a relevant role in mitigating climate change was transversal throughout the Summit. “To achieve the macro objectives, we have to work in the micro: in each house, in each company, in each organization”, mentioned Mario Pardo Bayona, president of the Board of Directors of Asobancaria at the conference on Positive biodiversity in the face of climate changemoderated by the director of EL PAÍS America, Jan Martínez.
In Latin America, the most biodiverse continent in the world, the impact of climate change is much higher than the rate of CO2 emissions. That is why the panelists wanted to go beyond a debate on how to curb emissions. “Biodiversity is much more; it is a source of riches in itself. We have to start seeing it as an asset, a new economic model,” explained Alicia Montalvo, CAF’s manager of Climate Action and Positive Biodiversity. This green bank invests 40% of its resources in this portfolio. “Transition is still a very flexible word, but it is necessary. We have to move forward and the environmental departments have to talk with the financiers to make sustainable projects a reality”.
For Rita de Cassia Mesquita, Secretary of Biodiversity of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, the new Brazilian government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been good news for the Amazon, but “not everything is done”: “We have reduced by 60 % deforestation, but nature is showing us its limits and we have to start putting ours”. And she concluded: “Environmental justice cannot stay on these panels, it has to reach the margins. To those who are on the front line.”
The role of cities
80% of Latin Americans live in cities. Oliverio García Basurto, president of Andemos, therefore spoke of the importance of infrastructure and public transport in Latin American cities: “Bogotá is the most congested city in the world. We need to start displacing people from cities: generating and promoting the growth of other small ones, because this is unsustainable”. An idea shared by Jaime Pumarejo, mayor of Barranquilla: “Cities have a great responsibility. It is a fallacy to think that the metropolises have nothing to do with biodiversity, we have bodies of water, forests, parks… We are all interconnected and our actions have an impact on the increase or deterioration of the environment”.
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