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Electric Cars for Colombia
Monday, October 6th, 2008First Chile, now Colombia. Where next for electric cars in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)?
The American Multi-services Company (Compañía Americana de Multiservicios - CAM) — 100% owned by Enersis S.A., which in turn is a subsidiary of the Spanish energy multinational Endesa — has announced that it is bringing the REVA electric car to [...]
Inspecting the World’s Largest Open Pit Coal Mine
Saturday, September 6th, 2008Recently Colombia’s Vice Minister for the Environment, Claudia Mora Pineda, the Ministry’s director of licenses and permits, and the head of the National Natural Parks Unit (UPNN) paid an “inspection” visit to El Cerrejón, Colombia’s largest coal mine and probably the largest open pit coal mine in the world. They also visited the mining firm’s [...]
Update: Colombian Eco-Authorities Now Have Sharp Teeth?
Friday, August 8th, 2008Last year I did a post about Colombia’s Environment Minister, Juan Lozano Ramírez, calling upon that country’s Senate to finally give environmental authorities “teeth” — a true, tough environmental sanctions regime. Proposals for such a law had been before the national legislature for years (Lozano says it’s been decades).
A few weeks ago the [...]
Colombian Palm Oil Industry Opts for Path to Certified Sustainable
Thursday, July 17th, 2008Last week the group representing Colombia’s palm oil business, the National Federation of Palm Oil Growers (Federación Nacional de Cultivadores de Palma de Aceite - Fedepalma), announced their adherence to the Principles and Criteria of the Zurich-based Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
The RSPO arose from a concept first proposed by WWF in 2001. [...]
Colombia’s First Eco-Certified Hotel
Sunday, July 13th, 2008Synopsis in English: Colombia’s Environment Ministry (MAVDT) has officially delivered to Hotel Puerta del Sol in Barranquilla the first Environmental Seal ever awarded to a hotel. The Environmental Seal is Colombia’s official ecolabel, created by decree in 2005. So far award criteria have been concluded for only two categories: lodging and cleaning products.
For [...]
Time to Turn in Your Old Refrigerators, Bogotá
Monday, June 9th, 2008Synopsis in English: One of the downsides of being so long away from regular blogging is the tremendous backlog of things I wish to cover. This is one — the good news that at the end of April, Colombia launched the pilot phase in Bogotá of a program to encourage consumers to voluntarily turn in [...]
Ecomoto Comes to Colombia
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Synopsis in English: Motorola’s take-back program for cell phones (and two-way communicators) and their batteries and accessories (chargers, cords, earphones, etc.), ECOMOTO, has now expanded in Latin America from Brazil to Colombia. Designated collection points established in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Pereira will accept used cell phones, two-way radios, their batteries [...]
Mandatory Independent Monitoring of Ecopetrol’s Discharges
Friday, September 21st, 2007Synopsis in English: Colombia's Environment Ministry (MAVDT) recently announced that the nation's public energy firm, Ecopetrol, will have its all its discharges into the Orotoy and Guamal Rivers permanently monitored and verified by an independent specialist company to check that they comply fully with environmental norms. Audits will be published periodically. Ecopetrol has also been [...]
Lozano: Environment Institutions Need to be Accountable
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Synopsis in English: Last month Colombia's Environment Minister, Juan Lozano Ramírez, signed a Standard Internal Control Model (MECI) agreement between his Ministry (MAVDT) and the Comptroller General to signal his intention to have the Ministry utilize internal controls and audits to ensure proper handling of the resources under its purview. He took the occasion to [...]
All Public Entities in Colombia Must Switch to Efficient Lighting by 2008
Thursday, August 9th, 2007Synopsis in English: Environment Minister Juan Lozano Ramírez announced yesterday that all public sector entities in Colombia must switch their lighting to efficient, energy-saving bulbs by 31 December. Public housing, which also falls under Lozano’s mandate, will also switch to energy-saving bulbs, but with a longer transition time (two more years). Lozano billed [...]
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