Towards a legislative and regulatory agenda for sustainable and legally secure mining, energy, infrastructure and rural and urban development sectors

Gustavo Adolfo Guerrero Ruiz | Director Legal y de Asuntos Regulatorios | Minería, Energía y Sostenibilidad

Opinion Column

Gustavo Adolfo Guerrero Ruiz

Legal and Regulatory Affairs Director | Mining, Energy and Sustainability

Today I had the opportunity to share a very enriching space with some colleagues from the extractive industry in Colombia, and to listen to ideas and concerns that will surely allow us to channel the legal framework of development in Colombia, recognizing our diversity, a necessary territorial and human rights approach, but also the necessary legal security and responsible approach to the global crisis that is pressing us.

I would like to refer to some points that a responsible regulatory agenda should include in the coming years in the face of these challenges, with a view to sustainably regulated mining, energy and infrastructure sectors:

1. A mechanism is needed to resolve intersectoral tensions regarding land use : development sectors currently compete to prioritize their own reasons of public utility and social interest as reasons of state to impose themselves and in some cases empty the powers of municipalities on the matter.

2. Coexistence as a territorial development strategy. It is necessary to overcome the flawed concept of a single-function territory and recognize that lands, especially rural ones, are multifunctional , and that diverse interests can converge in them in a planned way: agro-mining and energy transition territories, allowing society and the communities that inhabit the territory to benefit from the socio-economic development that multifunctionality can bring.

3. Optimization in the use of land destined for agricultural activity . It is urgent to resume the productive reconversion of agricultural land as a strategy to optimize the productivity of rural soils without extending the agricultural frontier, linking elements such as environmental restoration and the reuse of areas considered environmental liabilities, and recognizing the potential capacities of our peasant communities and the agro-industry under diverse associative schemes.

4. Recovery and restoration as strategies for territorial development and economic reactivation . The rehabilitation of degraded areas through recovery and restoration must be transformed into genuine opportunities for social and economic development, involving the diverse stakeholders in the region. It is essential to develop differentiated schemes at the territorial level, such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and other partnership models between the State, businesses, and communities, for the reactivation and productive and social transformation of the territory.

5. We must develop contractual models that promote the coexistence of energy sources , under additionality criteria for the energy transition: Differential schemes that provide incentives for the coexistence of extractive activities that have reduction indicators, with renewable energy generation activities whose proportional participation is demonstrably incremental.

6. Preliminary Environmental Assessment. We need to review the environmental licensing scheme in Colombia. The preliminary environmental impact assessment should be a criterion for approving or rejecting concession, E&P, and infrastructure contracts, with a final and detailed evaluation of the components of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) after the awarding of each project, work, or activity, as a condition for its execution.

7. Related to the above, it is necessary to review the model of the framework law on sectoral authorizations that Chile has built , as a regulatory strategy aimed at establishing minimum and common conditions for the procedures to obtain permits, concessions, authorizations and licenses required for the development of projects by the economic sectors; it is a strategy that will also allow the rationalization of procedures in order to guarantee rights such as participation and access to information, but also guarantees such as legality in the exercise of private initiative and in the development of administrative actions, guarantees that are currently relativized by discretion and in many cases, arbitrariness.

8. It is urgent that the Ministry of Environment fulfill its duty, which it has had since December 1993, to issue the Zoning and Appropriate Land Use Statute , which establishes clear general rules when it is intended to exceptionally condition the exercise of the constitutional powers of the municipalities in order to regulate land use in their territories, always with their participation.

9. Finally, it is necessary to undertake the development of the Escazu Agreement , which is already law of the Republic, in such a way that the rights of access to information, participation and environmental justice of each type of actor are developed in a differentiated manner , including the productive sector , which is also an actor of the territory and of sustainable development.

There is much to be done, and we trust that the legislative and regulatory agenda will address these and other issues that are currently being demanded by civil society, citizens, and a productive sector that is eagerly awaiting the signals that public policy will bring in the coming years to promote its strengthening.

Videcolumna: Hacia una agenda legislativa y regulatoria para unos sectores minero energético, de infraestructura y de desarrollo rural y urbano sostenibles y con seguridad jurídica