Green or grey growth for Colombia?

Challenging fossil-based energy security

This report analyses the potential and challenges of energy security and green growth in Colombia. It focusses on the political economic context and the forces and interest groups that advocate or constrain Colombia’s green growth trajectory. The authors suggest how the country’s energy transition can be accelerated  and point towards the risks of failing to link green energy growth with broader development objectives. Insights from the study can be used to incentivise action and support implementation of Colombia’s nationally determined contributions as set out in the Paris Climate Change Agreement. 

Energy security is a precondition for stable markets and a central driver of economic activity around the globe. Green growth approaches can serve the dual purpose of improving energy independency and supply-induced security of states while contributing to low carbon development and climate change mitigation objectives. However, not all is straightforward as various political, economic and environmental goals may clash, obstructing or delaying green growth in the process and potentially deepening a lock-in of fossil-based energy security. 

This report is part of a series of country studies on energy security and green growth in middle-income countries by means of Political Economy Analysis (PEA).