Colombian Congress Considers Renewable Energy Bill
In line with the global concern to implement clean energies and help strengthen national policies to minimize the environmental impacts of several activities that contribute to climate change, the Colombian Congress is studying a bill focused on energy transition and strengthening the electric and fuel gas public utility services.
The objectives proposed by the bill – No. 365 of 2020 of the Senate of the Republic – are for the country to implement "measures to strengthen the energy transition and to allow the reduction of emissions from fossil fuels, diversifying the Colombian energy matrix, implementing renewable energy, and improving the energy efficiency in order to protect the fundamental rights of life and health of the Colombian people." Among these measures is the strengthening of the use of nonconventional energy sources, storage systems and the efficient use of energy, especially those of a renewable nature. This can be accomplished by integrating the measures into the electricity market for the provision of public utilities and public lighting services and other energy uses as a basic mechanism for sustainable economic development.
Such purposes go hand-in-hand with the global commitments – the 2015 Paris Agreement – that the national government is assuming in order to maintain sustainable development and protect the environment and health of the Colombian population, in addition to balancing the need to exploit and properly use natural resources to generate energy, as the basic source for individuals' activities.
With this bill, Colombia approaches an effective strategy in order to implement a national Renewable Energy Plan to allow the generation of energy, minimizing the effects caused on the environment, especially on human health, without suspending or limiting activities typical of the country's technological and industrial development.
The bill is currently being discussed in the Fifth Commission of the Senate and will then be referred to the plenary of this body. It is expected to become law and be enacted by the end of this year, at the latest.
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