Germany to support Colombia’s energy transition with extra €200m

Germany has committed an additional 200 million euros to help Colombia reach its climate targets. During the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro’s, visit to Germany, the two countries signed a “partnership for climate and a just energy transition” with a focus on the expansion of renewable energies, protection of the environment and biodiversity, as well as sustainable urban development, according to a press release from the German foreign ministry. “This partnership is meant to take us towards the transition from fossil to clean energies, with the aim of becoming an exporter of clean energies such as green hydrogen and its derivatives,” said Colombia’s foreign minister Álvaro Leyva Durán. German development minister Svenja Schulze said Colombia's effort is crucial in reaching international climate and environmental targets as it presides over part of the Amazon and is one of the countries with the highest biodiversity worldwide.

Currently, Germany plays an unclear role in Colombia’s energy transition. Europe’s largest economy imported around 16 percent of the hard coal it used last year from Colombia. This had dire consequences for the local environment and indigenous groups in the Latin American country, as newspaper Tagesspiegel reported. German economy and climate minister Robert Habeck stressed that coal will become less important in bilateral trade relations as Germany shifts to renewables. After Peru, Colombia is the second Latin American country to form a bilateral climate partnership with Germany. In April, Colombia also joined the G7 'Climate Club', which is meant to bring together countries with particularly ambitious climate policies committed to full implementation of the Paris Agreement.