The former guerrilla turned climate crusader took office promising to phase out fossil fuels in Colombia, despite the economy relying on them.
President of Colombia Gustavo Petro joins the march and greets his followers as part of the 2024 International Workers Day on May 1, 2024 in Bogota, Colombia.watched in dismay as a political and economic crisis unfolded on the other side of his country’s eastern border.
His supporters say Petro is stating the realities of climate science plainly as they are. Indeed, the world needs to end its addiction to fossil fuels—and fast. Petro’s efforts reflect that urgency, they believe. But with two years remaining in his term, the Colombian President’s radical approach faces a difficult reality: to enact his agenda, he needs to work with the market. And that will require more than bold vision.
His climate transformation began in 1994 in Belgium, where he moved to serve as a diplomatic attaché, continue his studies, and escape death threats that dogged him in Colombia. At the University of Louvain, he studied development and the environment, and became absorbed in the work of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, which linked physics, natural resources, and economics. Today, Georgescu-Roegen is known among climate economists, but his work isn’t at the center of policy discussions.
These moves carry a significant political cost for Petro, agitating those focused on short-term economic outcomes and discouraging foreign investment everywhere in Colombia. “He has made it very clear to the world that he is antioil, antigas, anti-fracking and anti–United States,” Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub told investors after Petro blew up the deal.
Truckers take part in a demonstration against the rise of diesel prices by blocking access roads in Colombia, September 5, 2024.In October, members of his cabinet traveled to the coastal city of Barranquilla and laid out a $40 billion portfolio of projects designed to achieve Petro’s vision. The Mines and Energy Ministry described plans for a new energy company that will build renewables on the northern coast.
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