Search Climate Insights Directory

Colombia is utilizing the CCAC SNAP initiative and the LEAP-IBC tool to identify priority emitting sectors and integrate short-lived climate pollutant (SLCP) mitigation into its national air quality and climate change policies. The process involves quantifying emission scenarios to inform legal frameworks and funding, with specific focus on agriculture (rice paddies, sugar cane, manure management), transport, brick kilns, and cookstoves. To date, 60 regional climate change plans have been reviewed to identify implementation opportunities, and 15 of the 100 measures in Colombia's INDC resulted from SNAP Phase I.

Nigeria is implementing the SNAP initiative by establishing a coordination office within the Federal Ministry of Environment to identify emission sources and develop a national action plan. The process involves integrating the LEAP-IBC tool to model the impacts of emission scenarios on health, climate, and crop yields. Priority sectors for mitigation include cookstoves, agriculture, transport, brick kilns, and the oil and gas industry, with a focus on improving regulation, enforcement, and legislative frameworks to align with Nigeria's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) provides a suite of participatory tools and analytical frameworks to improve water resource management in Latin America, with a focus on Colombia. Key examples include the use of 'Serious Games' to help stakeholders understand and plan Watershed Management and Ordering Plans (POMCA) in Campoalegre, and the application of a multidimensional poverty analysis to evaluate water access and human security. The document also highlights the Regional Water Assessment (ERA) in Colombia and advocates for the role of community journalists in raising awareness about water care and sanitation needs.

The Stockholm Environment Institute's Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) initiative aims to evolve water planning beyond the traditional Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) paradigm. WBB focuses on three pillars: extending management beyond the immediate watershed to include global resource flows, implementing multi-scale participatory tools to address social inequalities (including gender and poverty), and integrating ecosystem needs throughout the planning process. The initiative is being tested through pilot studies in the Mekong River basin and the Magdalena River Basin, while reflecting on previous work in California.

The document analyzes the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in 13 Latin American countries, focusing on mainstreaming SDGs into national policies, operationalization, and social ownership. While most countries found aligning national priorities with SDGs relatively simple, they face significant hurdles in cross-sectoral coordination, long-term budgetary guarantees, and the inclusion of subnational governments and civil society. The report highlights diverse national strategies, ranging from Colombia's integration of SDGs into its national development plan to Mexico's alignment of over 400 budget indicators with SDG targets.

Côte d’Ivoire is utilizing the SNAP initiative to identify and mitigate short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) to improve public health, agriculture, and climate. Priority areas for action include the transportation sector, waste management, industrial processes, oil refineries, and the use of traditional cookstoves. The country is employing the LEAP-IBC tool for emission inventories and planning, with the goal of informing its air quality strategy and the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The Water Beyond Boundaries (WBB) initiative by the Stockholm Environment Institute proposes a new approach to sustainable water planning based on three pillars: early ecosystem consideration, multi-interest/scale participatory approaches, and water (tele)connections. This framework is designed to address the increasing difficulty of water management caused by growing demand and a changing climate, emphasizing the need to move beyond watershed-based planning to include impacts across countries, regions, and generations, while centering poverty alleviation and social equity.

The policy brief argues that Colombia's current climate-financial governance is limited to acute physical risks and the redirection of capital, leaving a gap in the management of chronic physical and transition risks. It proposes a roadmap based on the Helsinki Principles and international best practices from countries like China and Chile to integrate climate risks into the mandates of the Ministry of Finance and Credit and the Financial Superintendence of Colombia. The proposed roadmap consists of four components: institutional coordination, climate risk management, financial instruments and markets, and monitoring mechanisms.

The document analyzes the socio-economic dependence of Barrancabermeja on the oil industry and explores pathways for economic diversification to mitigate the risks of the energy transition. It identifies key opportunities in regenerative agriculture, low-emission hydrogen, and carbon capture, while warning that abrupt reductions in oil production could destabilize the local economy.

The policy brief analyzes the vulnerability of Paipa's economy to the energy transition, noting that nearly one-third of its production and employment depends on coal. It uses an input-output model to demonstrate that the cessation of coal-fired power generation could contract the municipal economy by 78.6%. To counter this, the report recommends diversifying into tourism, traditional manufactures (such as Paipa cheese), and high-value agriculture (potatoes and blackberries), suggesting that a 2.3% annual growth increase in these sectors between 2026 and 2035 could offset the losses from the coal industry.

Barrancabermeja faces a high structural dependence on the hydrocarbon sector, particularly the Ecopetrol refinery, which creates fiscal and labor risks. While gasoline demand may remain stable until 2035, the document warns of a structural crisis thereafter. It recommends a 'very rapid transition' policy to accelerate economic reconversion into bio-industrial services using oil palm biomass, ecotourism, and the creation of a Free Trade Zone to ensure a just economic transition.

The report describes two distinct but complementary tools for monitoring energy communities in Colombia: a national-scale longitudinal tracking tool by Transforma and a deep socioeconomic evaluation tool by ICSI. While Transforma's methodology focuses on the project life cycle (planning, construction, and operation) via community representatives, ICSI's approach uses household-level surveys to analyze territorial transformations. The document argues that using these tools in sequence or simultaneously provides a more robust diagnosis by combining organizational perspectives with real-world territorial conditions, as demonstrated by a pilot application in Tomarrazón, La Guajira.

The document provides a detailed analysis of Law 2099 of 2021, which aims to modernize Colombia's energy transition. It examines the expansion of public utility declarations for renewable energy projects, the modification of tax incentives to include hydrogen and geothermal energy, and the consolidation of energy funds into FONENERGÍA. The report highlights significant risks, including the promotion of 'blue hydrogen' from fossil fuels, the potential for environmental degradation due to streamlined licensing, and the risk of displacing populations lacking formal land titles. It also discusses the specific challenges of geothermal development in páramo ecosystems and the government's continued reliance on combustible gas as a transition bridge.

The document analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural vulnerabilities in Colombia's agricultural supply chains, particularly in transport infrastructure and commercialization for small producers. It argues that recovery should prioritize diversifying transport modes (rail and river), enhancing cold chain logistics, promoting short supply circuits, and implementing a national digital information system to improve transparency and climate resilience.

The document argues that Colombia's forestry sector, despite its resilience to COVID-19, faces systemic challenges including high informality, lack of unified institutional vision, and inadequate financing. It highlights that 42% of produced timber is estimated to be illegal and that deforestation persisted during the pandemic, with over 75,000 hectares lost in the Colombian Amazon in early 2020. The brief recommends strengthening the Forest Monitoring and Carbon System (SMByC), creating a national forestry observatory, reforming the Forest Incentive Certificate (CIF), and promoting community forestry concessions to integrate small producers into the formal economy and meet 2030 GDP targets for the forestry economy.

This policy brief by Transforma provides recommendations for the recovery of Colombia's agri-food production sector following the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the pandemic exacerbated historical vulnerabilities, such as low rural associativity and inefficient resource use, and advocates for a transition toward sustainable production systems, improved rural digitalization, and more inclusive financial mechanisms to ensure long-term food sovereignty and resilience.

The document outlines a strategy for a just energy transition in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, a city where 70% of the economy is linked to the petroleum industry. It identifies key risks, such as employment loss and environmental preservation, and proposes diversifying the local economy through regenerative agriculture, nature tourism, renewable energy (solar and agrivoltaics), and the production of renewable fuels like green diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The document defines a just energy transition (TEJ) as a series of changes in energy planning, generation, distribution, and consumption aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring equity and inclusion. It highlights Latin America's potential as a global leader in renewable energy due to its natural resources and strategic minerals. The text argues that the TEJ must be a long-term state priority rather than a government one, requiring public policies that foster community participation, social and environmental safeguards, and the diversification of energy sources and local economic activities to ensure no one is left behind.

The document details a bottom-up modeling exercise using the Energy Scope tool to project Colombia's energy transition. It outlines a path toward net-zero emissions by 2050, characterized by a massive scale-up of solar and wind capacity, the gradual phase-out of fossil fuels, and the integration of energy storage and green hydrogen. The modeling identifies specific capacity targets for renewable energy across three time horizons and highlights the role of natural gas as a transitional fuel for transport and industry before full electrification.

The document analyzes the feasibility and impact of electrifying residential thermal uses in Colombia, specifically replacing gas stoves and water heaters with electric induction and instant heaters. Using a simulation model, it identifies economic, cultural, and technical barriers to adoption and argues that an immediate shift to total electrification is more cost-effective than a mixed transition. It highlights the risk of gas supply shortages by 2038 and recommends public policies, such as equipment substitution programs and local value chain strengthening, to accelerate a just energy transition.