Green on Paper, Gas on the Ground: Colombia’s Contradictory Green Transition

In recent years, Colombia has committed to decarbonization and steering the country away from extractive activities, which have historically been the foundation of its economy. These new priorities have seen extensive investments and policy measures. However, given the clear political nature they stem from, this ambitious green journey perhaps has less depth than promised and, ultimately, is replete with carbon contradictions (The Economist, 2025).

Pivot towards renewables

In his campaign and since taking office, President Gustavo Petro has been very vocal about fighting fossil fuels. In these past three years, under his administration, and aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030, Colombia has intensified its efforts to diversify its energy sector (IEA, 2023). So much so, that Colombia has become the first major oil-producing country to put a stop to new oil-and-gas-exploration licenses, in a very clear commitment to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (The Economist, 2025). This was the most symbolic measure of the energy policy shift. However, President Petro is also currently trying to pass a ban on fracking in Congress, adding to his list of green policies.

This green transition has also received notable financial support. In September 2024, the government unveiled a US$40 billion plan to achieve its transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The investment will focus on clean energy projects, sustainable agriculture and ecosystem restoration. The plan also aims to attract foreign credit to further help fund the transition (Freixes, 2024). Funding from international financial institutions has come, for example, from the World Bank, which just approved a US$750 million climate change loan to Colombia this month. It is intended to help increase the development of solar, offshore wind farms, green hydrogen and electric urban transport (Bocanegra, 2024).

Colombia’s potential in renewable energy

Colombia is blessed with extensive natural resources. In its commitment to decarbonization, the country’s largest oil and gas company Ecopetrol has commenced investing in renewable sources such as solar, wind and hydrogen, although it is clear that the transition in Colombia must be driven and funded by the hydrocarbon industry, as the most resourceful and powerful (Fitch Ratings, 2023).

Overall, in 2021, renewables made up 25% of Colombia’s total energy supply and more than a third of final energy consumption, substantially above the average of 14% recommended by the International Energy Agency (IEA) (IEA, 2023).

In the region, it comes third in terms of operative and prospective solar and wind capacity, and thus, is undeniably a top future renewables leader in Latin America. This is shown in the graph below:

Challenges

Despite this policy implementation and funding developments, the green energy transition still faces challenges. On the ground, there have been vast protests regarding numerous energy projects such as wind farms. Opposition, particularly from indigenous groups which make up 42% of the total population in regions such as La Guajira (IEA, 2023), has been intense, leading to delays and suspended projects. Precisely because of years of protests, Italian multinational energy company Enel was forced to suspend wind farm construction in Colombia in 2023 (Reuters, 2023).

Other more structural challenges that hinder progress are issues in regulatory and licensing processes, which companies have reported to be significant barriers to the timely implementation of renewable projects (Reuters, 2024).

In addition, another vital challenge to keep in mind during the transition, is Colombia’s high levels of income inequality, which should definitely shape energy policy making. In 2021, 3% of Colombians did not have access to electricity. It has 1 million families relying on firewood for cooking and with no access to modern cooking fuels. Around 45% of the country still lives under the poverty line (IEA, 2023).

More important still, are the challenges that the economic realities of Colombia from its dependency on fossil fuels represent to the transition.

Economic realities and carbon contradictions

This insistence on moving away from fossil fuels and growing Colombia’s other key industries, such as tourism, agriculture and renewable energy, however, greatly overestimated the country’s dependency on fossil fuels.

In fact, oil and coal continue to make up around 50% of its export revenue, generating $24.7 billion in 2024, followed by tourism and agriculture, but which, in contrast, totalled only $17.5 billion. Despite the tourism industry having grown 12.8% since 2022, it remains a long way from the amount generated by fossil fuels (Daniels, 2024).

The graph below demonstrates this reliance:

This dependency, along with favourably high oil prices, is why many economists have doubted the government’s current fixation on moving away from its extractive activities (Daniels, 2024).

Yet these economic realities are well-known, since Colombia has always been a large oil-producing country. It is, in large part, why the energy transition is marketed more as diversification than a complete shift to green energy. But the current administration’s very vocal push for renewables is, when examined closer, full of contradictions.

Firstly, and succeeding in going mostly unnoticed, President Petro conceded that natural gas should be left largely untouched during the energy transition (The Economist, 2025). This is because Colombia, for the first time in a century, had to import gas for domestic use. It was a shock to the economy, given that the country historically had had vast reserves, but since 2012, they have shrunk by 58% (The Economist, 2025). In response, President Petro has been forced to look abroad, for a country to import gas from. And this is every colour but green. Transporting liquefying gas is not only three times more expensive than producing it locally. It also increases emissions by about 50% more (The Economist, 2025).

Another factor directly contradicting his implemented measures for the transition, was the proud announcement of the largest gas field ever found in Colombia, and which has the potential to triple the country’s reserves (The Economist, 2025). Moreover, the country’s Ecopetrol is still actively developing natural gas reservoirs (Fitch Ratings, 2023).

Colombia’s continued reliance on fossil fuel is therefore not even close to being over and is also evident in the development of offshore Caribbean gas discoveries and searches for deep-water basins (Fitch Ratings, 2023).

In conclusion, while backed by important policies such as the cessation of new oil and gas exploration contracts as well as generous investments, Colombia’s green energy transition is overshadowed by the country’s continued reliance on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. This inherent paradox means that the road towards diversification will not be smooth.

References:

BBC. (2022, November 17). How Colombia plans to keep its oil and coal in the ground. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20221116-how-colombia-plans-to-keep-its-oil-and-gas-in-the-ground

Bocanegra, N. (2024, April 1). World Bank approves $750 mln climate change loan to Colombia. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/world-bank-approves-750-mln-climate-change-loan-colombia-2024-04-01/

Daniels, J. (2024, November 11). Colombia battles to diversify economy away from oil and gas. Financial Times . Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/95be32c9-e292-485c-8103-505c564daf13?

Fitch Ratings. (2023). What Investors Want to Know: Colombia Energy and Power Utilities. Corporates. Retrieved from https://your.fitch.group/rs/732-CKH-767/images/fitch-what-investors-want-to-know-colombian-energy-and-power-utilities-natural-gas-supports-hydrocarbon-outlook-amid-energy-transition_Fitch_10246406.pdf

Freixes, J. (2024, September 26). Colombia to unveil US$40 billion plan for clean energy transition. ColombiaOne. Retrieved from https://colombiaone.com/2024/09/26/colombia-energy-transition-plan/

Global Energy Monitor. (2023). A Race to the Top Latin America 2023: Wind and solar utility-scale buildout gains speed in Brazil, Chile and Colombia, while Mexico falls behind. Reports & Briefings. Retrieved from https://globalenergymonitor.org/report/a-race-to-the-top-latin-america/

IEA. (2023). Executive Summary: Colombia 2023. Retrieved from https://www.iea.org/reports/colombia-2023/executive-summary

Reuters. (2023, May 25). Enel suspends Colombia wind farm construction after years of protests. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/enel-suspends-colombia-wind-farm-construction-after-years-protests-2023-05-24/

Reuters. (2024, October 5). Latin America gears up for clean hydrogen boom but the road is not smooth. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/latin-america-gears-up-clean-hydrogen-boom-road-is-not-smooth-2024-10-04/

The Economist. (2025). The green promises of Colombia’s president ring ever more hollow. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/04/10/the-green-promises-of-colombias-president-ring-ever-more-hollow

Written by Laura Rebollo