>> Morning, everybody.
Welcome to the second day of the summit that the
World Economic Forum in New York.
It gives me an absolute delight to
welcome this morning His Excellency
the president of Colombia
Ivan Duque
and we will be discussing in this
segment the future of the Amazon in conversation.
You have seen international concern
rising about international
concern for deforestation
in the Amazon basin and
president Ivan Duque has been at the forefront
of the discussions which are complicated
and involve many different actors.
We are delighted to have him here
to talk to us exclusively
about some of these reflections.
Thank you very much for finding the time
in your incredibly busy diary
while you are here at the Gen assembly to talk
to us.
It is our honour to talk to you.
Deforestation is a complicated issue
and there are many
different aspects.
In your opinion,
what are the most salient challenges
at the root of the problem
and,
even the attention on the fires in the region,
what is your assessment
of the situation?
>> Thank you very much for this
kind invitation
to speak.
It is a pleasure to meet you.
My best regards to all of you.
Let me begin by saying something
-
before we get to talk about the Amazon or the
tropical forest, let's look
into the major problem
which has to do with climate change and its
effects.
When you look at a country like
Colombia,
Colombia only represents
0.4%
of all the global green gases emissions
.
We have the six of the seventh cleanest energy
matrix in the world.
We have
35-40% of soil
or territory in the Amazon Basin and,
nevertheless,
we are one of the most vulnerable countries in
the world to climate change effects.
I mention this because
, to protect the Amazon,
to protect the tropical forest,
it is also part of the action plan to be
responsible
for how we mitigate or adapt ourselves to the
effects of climate change.
The Amazon has been affected seriously by
climate change.
The dry seasons are longer.
The ring takes longer to come.
The dry seasons are facing
more fires.
Besides that,
we also face different kinds of enemies.
There is illegal mining.
Illegal mining
in some of the Amazon
is a major threat.
Illegal crops
.
We are talking about coca crops because people
don't realise that in order
to plant 1 ha of cocoa,
2 ha of tropical forest have to be destroyed.
The third thing
is the illegal expansion
of the agricultural frontier.
It affects the national parks.
Colombia has 49 national parks with many in the
Amazon.
They are
affected by the illegal expansion of the
agricultural frontier
or border.
Last but not least,
we also face illegal cattle
or we face illegal development
of the wood industry.
In the case of Colombia,
what have we done
in one year
?
We began a strategy.
The first part of the strategy was to put
national resources at the Cornerstone of our
national security agenda.
Protect the rivers, the forest, the Amazon
-
that is part of national security.
The second thing was to make
institutions work together.
We created the first anti-deforestation
commission
in Colombia
and decided to work with the military
and police to monitor the national parks and
the different regions of Colombia
where we have rainforest
and tropical forest.
We started to set an example.
When we identified people
and illegal cattle,
we seized
the cattle and brought them to justice.
We started setting the example that
whenever you decide to do something against
nature,
you will be chased and brought to justice.
In one year, we reduced
deforestation by 17%.
Is that enough?
No.
We have got to go for more.
That has set the example.
As we are using the stick, we also have to
use the carrot.
By that, we are trying to approach the indigenous
communities and many peasants and tell them
to switch
to a new activity that is paid
and we are paying them for environmental
services.
They become
modest protectors,
forest guards
-
for us protectors and they promote bio tourism
and work in some of the
centres where people study the Amazon and I
think that is the right way to go.
What is legal?
When we said the plan for national development,
we wanted to reduce deforestation by 30% in
our term.
We have got to go for more.
I am confident and optimistic we will get a
bigger number with the way that we are working
right now.
I wanted to put it in that broad scope
because, for us, protecting the Amazon is
a must.
I would like to finish with this question
-
it has to be original effort.
The fires that we have seen in the Amazon,
we cannot politicise those fires.
The fires have happened in Brazil this year and
also in Bolivia.
We supported Bolivia.
We have not had a fire in the Amazon but we
could.
We cannot let the issue be politicise.
That is why we have called for a pact with
Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador
and other countries to sign the agreement
where we all share
objectives, measures
and into institutional coordination
and there are
specific ways for how we can involve the
communities
to help us preserve that very important treasure
that has a major importance for the
world.
>> Thank you so much, your Excellency.
It is very interesting to hear your viewpoint
on the challenges
as far as the effects of climate change on the
national resource base and the response to that
and your diplomatic efforts have been
exemplary in terms of bringing the focus
together.
Can we talk a bit about that meeting and the
discussions you have had that United Nations
around these new alliances.
What do you hope will emerge from the new
momentum involving the countries?
>> I think that there are many pacts
inbuilt.
Yesterday was a great opportunity to talk
about two of them.
One was the
packed
, which involves all of us reducing
-- pac
t.
It involves us reducing deforestation.
Also, how do we
draw new Forest in the Amazon?
We have got a major goal by 2022.
I look at the Minister
of environment and I look at him with my
calculator.
We have put in the national development
plan and we have the goal of planting
180 million trees
by 2022.
How do we do that?
We do that in coordination with the
local environmental authorities and the
lovely states so that we reforest
a lot of the land that has been
affected and when you look at the agreement,
all the countries want to work.
There is another packed,
unimportant agreement that occurred yesterday
and it has to do with the original objective when
it comes to nonconventional
renewables and renewable energy.
In a country like Colombia, as I said
before, we have the six or seven
cleanest energy matrix in the world because
much of it is based on hydro.
When I took office, it was 0.1% of all the
energy matrix in nonconventional
renewables
and we sat down with the Minister of energy, who
was here, and we decided to become ambitious on
this.
We said by 2022
that we want to get a 10%
of the installed capacity and that means
passing from less than 60 MW to 1500 MW.
I am pretty certain that we will surpass the
target.
Why?
We want to get to 2030 with 20% of the
installed capacity being nonconventional
renewable, solar and wind.
Yesterday, we sat down with eight countries and
reset the original target
.
We want to get to 2030
and set
original target of 70%
, 70% of renewables
is a cornerstone of the regional energy matrix.
That has to do a lot with adapting
and mitigating the effects of climate
change.
If we really want to do well and Excel,
the whole idea
is that energy
plays a major role
.
If we really want to be successful,
we have to start with the energy sector.
>> That is a fantastic target
of 70% renewable by 2030
and a mixture of regional, solar.
>> Solar, wind and hydro among others.
>> This approach is something you have
pioneered under your presidency with your
ministers in Colombia and it seems to be
quite a comprehensive approach across
different ministries under leadership
from yourself to tackle this across energy,
agriculture, because it's not just
environmental but it is an economic issue for
the region.
Thus a comprehensive approach also involve
partnerships, for example, with the
private sector
and others like science?
>> The private sector must play a leading role
as well.
>>, For some, these are parts of the
problem, not the solution.
>> Besides that, even if the private sector
becomes a leader, you should build the right
incentives.
In Colombia, but it comes to renewable
energies,
there was a bill issued in Congress and that
Bill
allows the private sector
to discount
50%
of the corporate income tax
and the investments that are made on energy
efficiency and renewable energies.
That is really accelerating the
change.
You can see
in many companies know that countries are
thinking on energy efficiency
, so it was the right and centre.
Also,
we have given a signal
on a specific
sector.
It is transportation.
We took the decision last year
that we wanted this administration
to be the administration
that
push the agenda
on clean transportation.
We passed the Electric Vehicle
Hill.
It is a zero
trade tariff and the 85% while the rest is 19%.
We have a discount
on what we call
the annual revision
, gas revision,
and there is a discount on
the insurance for auto accidents.
Besides that,
in cities,
there is no mobility restriction.
People are taking it seriously.
I decided myself to start studying the
examples.
I just bought
an electric motorcycle.
I want to be able
to be a pedagogue on electric mobility, so
that involves
the transport sector as well.
Two other examples, the circular
economy policy.
We build the first
circular
economic policy under the three
economic policy under the 3Rs and we reduce,
and reserve.
We are getting the
industrial
sector to be motivated.
We have enjoyed --
involve cattle,
the cork industry and others in
zero deforestation
agreements and this is happening in Colombia
and we will only be successful if we have
the private sector as a leader of the
transformation.
>> Fantastic.
These packs involving the private sector
for example in
palm oil,
DV,
beef, they seem to be quite a unique and
interesting approach for the region as a whole as
part of the delivery of the
partnerships under the agreement.
>> In the case of cattle and beef specifically,
we identified
one of the many things that we can do is to
reduce the extension
of the areas
that are devoted for cattle
because in Colombia
we have, on average,
one toe per hectare.
-
Toe.
We have 30 million ha devoted to that purpose.
Can we make a change?
Yes we can.
The way that we do that is not by
demonising the sector, as has happened in other
places.
Instead, we call the sector
and say that they can do something different
like reduce the area and be more productive
and useful addition.
Additionally,
why do we think
of the pastures as a way of having
the best quality
and, at the same time, capture the green gas
emissions.
The goal that we have set with the Minister of
agriculture
and the Minister of environment is that we
will go with 100,000 ha in the next two years
and we will promote
the civil pastures in the beef sector, the cow
sector.
I think that is also a way
of putting the debate on sustainable cattle
industry and I think
that also might be a good story to tell in
Colombia.
>> I know that your diary is extremely busy,
Mr President,
and there are a lot of different alliances for
you to build while you are in New York
but your insects have been excellent and it
feels like nudging towards a more
sustainable and more technologically driven
economy for the Amazon Basin and higher
productivity and moving away from low-volume and
>>
I want to make this
reflection.
People do not regularly understand that the
Amazon is not just jungle.
There are
34 million people living in the Amazon
,
shared by many countries
,
and there are cities in the Amazon
.
We have the city of Leticia
,
and those cities are important
,
but there has to be a way
to involve the city's more actively
in the protection
of the Amazon
,
so that is why I have launched a concept
that I shared yesterday
with the professor
and
there is the concept
of bio diverse
-
c
ity
,
how they can participate actively
in the protection of biodiversity, on
research on sustainable development, on the best
practices on different sectors
and how do we make out of the citizens
of those bio diverse
cities
the ethics of the 21st-century weather
protection of the environment
is one of the most important issues
of their time?
We are also working on that.
>> We
at the economic Forum are delighted to support
and do everything we can
to expand the concept of biodiversity
cities in the region
and on behalf of us
at the World Economic Forum
I am delighted
with the leadership
that brings together the different companies
and stakeholders
, civil society
in Colombia.
Thank you so much.