CTCN/CAIA Ingeniería webinar: Colombian Carbon tax - Scaling up from the national to the international level

Recently the government of Colombia established a carbon tax, adding to the list of countries that have established it. The process of establishing the carbon tax in Colombia proposes an interesting scheme at the national and international level, which can be replicated in other contexts in the future.

The presentation sought to establish how the carbon tax status of Colombia was structured. The presentation described national emissions and the implication of the instrument. In Colombia, it is possible not to pay the carbon tax if a serious series of actions related to the mitigation of greenhouse gases are carried out.

Organisation

CAIA Ingeniería S.A.S was registered in 2005 with the purpose of improving the environmental performance of its clients. Initially dedicated exclusively to consultancy and assessment, CAIA has evolved to incorporate more complete services, such as management of tax incentives and execution of energy efficiency projects to companies and national and sub-national decision-makers in Colombia.

Presenters

Rodrigo Suárez has over 16 years of professional experience in sustainable development and environmental issues, such as the design and implementation of climate change policies, plans and programs, biofuels, air pollution and landfills. In his previous assignment, he was the Director of Climate Change of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development in Colombia. Among its main achievements was to lead the technical team from Colombia at COP21, the authorship of the policy of climate change and the structuring of the Law of Climate Change recently settled in the congress. 

Rodrigo Suárez was an alternate member of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). In addition, he has been Deputy Director of Instruments, Permits and Environmental Procedures at ANLA, technical coordinator for Environmental Licensing Evaluation and Monitoring at the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development, and has provided services to companies and other governmental entities. He is currently the Director of the Climate Change Unit of CAIA Ingeniería.

Alexander Valencia has Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and approximately 18 years of experience on issues related to air pollution and hazardous waste, pollutant emissions from mobile sources and stationary sources, standardization and atmospheric protection policies, energy efficiency, GHG inventory reviews and NAMAs.

Alexander worked as a researcher and director of a research center at the University of Los Andes and as a consultant in different entities in Colombia such as Bogota Environment Agency, Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, National Planning Department, Chamber of Commerce of Bogota, World Bank, UNDP and UNFCCC.

Currently Alexander is developing several projects related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, compliance with environmental standards, energy efficiency, test burns for ODS and PCB in waste incineration facilities and technical studies for updating environmental regulations in Colombia and Brazil.