Above Photo: Young People Protest Against Fracking In Puerto Wilches, 2022. @N_thanki / Twitter.
The Decision Disregards The Risk Of Serious And Irreversible Damage That This Experimental Technique Represents For Human Environment, Health, And Integrity.
On Thursday, Colombian environmental defenders rejected a decision whereby the Council of State facilitates oil exploitation through hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
“The decision disregards the environmental precautionary principle and the risk of serious and irreversible damage that this experimental technique represents for human environment, health, and integrity,” the Fracking Free Colombia Alliance (ACLF) stressed.
“Fracking is dangerous in the context of the climate crisis and openly inconsistent with the international commitments acquired by Colombia,” it recalled.
The ACLF also recalled that the implementation of this technique will increase risks to the lives of environmental defenders and Indigenous peoples in Magdalena Medio, “a territory that has suffered oil exploitation and armed violence for more than a century.”
The Colombian debate about fracking’s environmental and social consequences intensified during the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), who signed a decree that opened the doors to the use of fracking in the so-called “unconventional deposits.
Later, despite social rejection of the pollution and violence associated with the operations of fracking companies, the far-right President Ivan Duque implemented this exploitation practice, arguing that it would contribute to the country’s energy security.
During the last electoral campaign, the Historical Pact candidate Gustavo Petro openly took a position against hydraulic fracturing. On Thursday, ratifying his political promises, the President-elect Petro said “there will be no fracking in Colombia.”