2024-08-26 22:23:33
In the presentation of the study “Energy security and reliability in Colombia (2010 – 2026), the Comptroller Delegate of Mines and Energy, Germán Castro Ferreira, called attention to the ‘bottleneck’ that environmental licensing and prior consultations have become.
Now the environmental license is the authorization granted by the environmental authority for the execution of a project, work or activity, which according to the Law and its regulations (Decree 1076 of 2015) has the potential to generate significant environmental impacts.
Environment and energy security
“This is a situation common to all energy subsectors and must be addressed as a priority, as it is delaying the execution time of projects that are vital to guarantee energy security,” said Germán Castro Ferreira, Comptroller Delegate of Mines and Energy.
He mentioned as a specific case the suspension of the terms of the environmental licensing of the Komodo 1 project in ultra-deep waters of the Caribbean, ordered by the ANLA by means of an Order of July 26, a measure that will cause delays of more than a year.
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Environmental impacts
For his part, Carlos Hernán Rodríguez, Comptroller General of the Republic, considered it natural that there is concern about the environmental impact of energy projects, indicating that there will always be some type of impact.
“If we pretend to some extent that there is no risk or impact, that will never happen in reality, it will always happen, and I think it is necessary to reflect on this and not only in the area of oil exploration and exploitation,” he said.
He said that this must also be considered with regard to infrastructure works, for which prior consultations must be held, but where, by not moving forward in this direction, obligations and contracts are made in which the State ends up causing a very important distribution, by not having been able to carry out the work and paying billions of pesos to private concessionaires without the works being there, by having acquired this type of obligations and not being able to bring them to a successful conclusion, precisely due to this type of circumstances.
“I do think that the country has to stop and ask itself if it is worth paying billions, even trillions of pesos, in compensation, without having the works functioning and in proper service,” he said.
Rejected studies
In turn, the Minister of Mines and Energy, Andrés Camacho, said: “Environmental licensing cannot become an obstacle for projects that will free us from emissions.”
While the Vice Minister of Environmental Policies and Standardization of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Mauricio Cabrera Leal, said that this is a topic under discussion for several years, and it must be taken into account that in many projects, poor quality studies continue to be presented that must be rejected by the ANLA.
And regarding the questioning of the Comptroller’s Office study regarding a recurring institutional disarticulation, the vice minister said that he had never seen such articulation as that which is occurring between the entities of the current government.
Meanwhile, Senator Miguel Ángel Barreto recalled that several attempts have been made to make changes to the issue of prior consultations, but paradoxically, the presentation of a bill in this regard requires a prior consultation.
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Energy transition
And regarding the energy transition, the Minister of Mines said: “Climate change is not a simple matter. It is already happening and the pace it imposes on us may be greater than the public policies and techniques we are developing today. There is no magic formula for this path to follow in the energy transition.”
Naturgas President Luz Estella Murgas has already called for the Government to know clearly and with certainty whether it is betting on this sector, to use natural gas as a vehicle to reduce poverty and accelerate the energy transition.
For his part, the president of the Colombian Oil and Gas Association, Frank Pearl, said: “The fair energy transition has not been defined in the world. We buy into the discourse of some very rich countries, which have already solved their issues of economic diversification and poverty.”
The president of the National Hydrocarbons Agency, Orlando Velandia Sepúlveda, said it was necessary for all sectors – the Government, Congress, regulatory bodies, territorial entities, active civil society and the productive sector – to become aware of the need to move forward in the energy transition.
And the director of the Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission, Antonio Jiménez Rivera, said that there can be certainty that regulatory measures will be taken to allow the country to continue to have the conditions for infrastructure development in the sectors related to the energy transition.
At the closing of the Forum “Energy Security: Truths and Challenges”, the Deputy Comptroller, Carlos Mario Zuluaga Pardo, indicated that, if Colombia does well, the government does well and the country does well, and these events and discussions convened by the Comptroller General of the Republic serve to evaluate and review all aspects surrounding this issue and to know all positions on the matter.
Zuluaga Pardo stressed the importance of opening these spaces for dialogue. “The objective is to create meeting points that facilitate the resolution of questions and the exploration of paths where we can go hand in hand,” he said.
Recognized victims
It is important to remember that on April 4 of this year, in this regard, Amín Losada, advisor to the Huila Governor’s Office, stated: “Let us remember that there were some roadblocks during the past Easter, making it necessary for the Secretary of Government, Edgar Martín Lara, to attend to put an end to the road closure and with the protesters, we agreed to a meeting.”
The meeting took place, where the claimants explained their situation to officials of the Government of Huila.
“Indeed, there are affected people who have not been registered, they are not in the databases of the company Enel, the entity in charge of the El Quimbo hydroelectric project, and what is sought here is that they have been heard, and that their exact damages are reviewed and that their damages are recognized or, failing that, that the necessary compensation can be given,” said the official.
The Environmental License was issued in 2009 and some people were affected as a result.
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They are not recognized as affected
According to the inspector, the compensations were recorded in Resolution 899, which is the project license.
“In this order of ideas, we took on the task of creating, between 2022 and 2023, with the support of the previous Departmental Government, a citizen oversight committee to monitor the obligations set forth in the Environmental License, and on January 20 of this year we managed to meet with several affected peasant groups that have not yet been recognized by the energy project. Of these, we managed to identify 18 groups that today long for Enel or the State to give them direct reparation or compensation. From there, a monitoring table was born,” the leader highlighted.
Later, seeing that no one was listening to their requests, the community took over the roads in the Río Loro population center, located between the municipalities of Gigante and Garzón, and closed the road, which fortunately was negotiated.