Financing the energy transition in Ecuador

Financing the energy transition in Ecuador 

By Luis Fierro Carrion (*)

Twitter: @Luis_Fierro_C

The acceleration of climate change and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have produced a renewed impetus regarding the need to move towards an energy transition in Ecuador.

The extortion generated by the indigenous movement strike, which forced the government to increase the subsidy for fossil fuels, makes even more urgent the need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and promote the use of renewable energy.

Fossil fuel subsidies constitute complete nonsense, given their negative impact on income distribution, on health, climate change, air pollution and the fiscal deficit.

One way to address these problems is to promote the use of electric transportation, whether individual or collective. In the collective sphere, it seems that the Quito Metro, whose construction ended without having resolved the issue of its operational management, is finally going to start operating in a few months. In Cuenca, the tram also had to wait more than a year between its construction and its operation. In Guayaquil, the Airway that connects Durán with Guayaquil came into operation, although with little influx of the public. In Guayaquil, the use of electric buses has also been promoted.

These are incipient steps in the use of electro-mobility in Ecuador. There are resources from multilateral development banks (IDB, CAF, AFD, KfW) to promote a more intensive use of electric vehicles, which also requires the installation of a network of battery charging stations.

By using electric vehicles, the consumption of fossil fuels is reduced (and, therefore, the cost of subsidies for the State is lower), and the excess capacity of hydroelectric generation is better used (the vehicles should preferably be recharged late at night, with a reduced rate).

Efforts have also been made to promote renewable energy beyond large hydroelectric plants, through the approval for the installation of solar and wind power plants (in Loja, Manabí, Galapagos, among others).

The government has announced plans to rationalize the use of natural gas, which may include: stopping burning gas at the oil wells and refineries, and instead capturing and using such valuable resources; and making better use of the gas from the Gulf (instead of forcing the thermoelectric generation at the Termogas Machala plant, at hours when hydroelectric generation would suffice).

There are resources available to promote the energy transition towards greater use of renewable energy and more energy efficiency, by multilateral and bilateral development banks (World Bank, European Investment Bank, IDB, CAF, AFD, KfW, Green Climate Fund, etc.). 

The National Climate Finance Strategy was approved in February 2021. This strategy seeks to establish a clear and effective governance of climate finance; transversally integrate the climate approach in the financial system; and promote greater access to climate finance.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition are in charge of promoting these processes. In addition, the accreditation of a public bank before the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund is contemplated.

Ecuador is already a power in the generation of energy with low emissions, and must continue promoting the conversion of the vehicle fleet towards electromobility.

(*) A Spanish version of this column was published on September 16, 2022, in "Diario El Universo" of Ecuador:

https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/columnistas/financiando-la-transicion-energetica-nota/

Indoamerican communism is barbarism

By Luis Fierro Carrion (*)

Twitter: @Luis_Fierro_C

The president of CONAIE, Leonidas Iza, and his co-authors (Andrés Madrid, Secretary of the Casa de la Cultura; and Andrés Tapia, communication director for CONFENIAE), conclude their book “Estallido” (Outbreak) with the phrase “The light at the end of the tunnel comes from the believed, searched and urgent affirmation: Indoamerican Communism or barbarism”.

The three of them, together with Andrés Madrid's father, Dimitri Madrid (Dean of the Faculty of Social Communication of the Central University of Ecuador) have been the visible leaders of the mariateguista movement in Ecuador.

This movement takes its name from the Peruvian Marxist José Carlos Mariátegui, who founded the Peruvian Socialist Party in 1928, which, after his death in 1930, would become the Peruvian Communist Party, aligned with Stalinism and the Comintern.

Nevertheless, Mariátegui was an original Marxist philosopher, emphasizing the role of the indigenous masses as the authentic “proletariat” of the continent and proclaiming the need for a socialist revolution. In some way, he was ahead of Maoism, a Marxist current that also gave an important role to the peasantry (after the Japanese invasion of China, Mao launched the "Yan'an Rectification Movement" in 1942, which carried out the main deviation from the Soviet line, highlighting the importance of the peasantry as a revolutionary subject).

Other Marxist leaders who continued in this line were Pol Pot in Cambodia, and Abimael Guzmán, leader of Sendero Luminoso in Peru (the very name of his terrorist group derives from a phrase by Mariátegui: "Marxism-Leninism is the shining path of the future").

In the book "Estallido", Marxist thinkers such as Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Antonio Gramsci are cited, as well as left-wing leaders in Ecuador such as Arturo Jarrín, Tránsito Amaguaña and Fausto Vargas, among others.

Marxist groups in Ecuador have sought to infiltrate CONAIE (the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) since its founding. Some of them were established left-wing parties and movements (Communist Party, Socialist Party, the Maoist Marxist-Leninist Communist Party), but also groups of rebels, such as Alfaro Vive, Montoneros Patria Libre, the “Gías”, Sol Rojo, the FARC and the ELN of Colombia, among others. His cousin Leonidas Iza Quinatoa, when he was president of CONAIE, had contacts with the FARC (https://www.codigovidrio.com/code/la-conexion-ecuador-bolivia/)

CONAIE has participated in various coup attempts, in some cases successful:

- Overthrow of Jamil Mahuad in January 2000; a “National Salvation Board” claimed power for a few hours, led by Army Colonel Lucio Gutiérrez, and also made up of Antonio Vargas – then president of CONAIE – and Carlos Solorzano, the former president of the Supreme Court of Justice.

- In 2005, they participated in the overthrow of their former ally, Lucio Gutiérrez.

- In October 2019, they tried to overthrow President Lenin Moreno (elected by Rafael Correa's Alianza PAIS movement, although Moreno later distanced himself from Correa and his vice president Jorge Glas, due to various corruption convictions).

- In June 2022, CONAIE led a violent strike for 18 days, which included an attempt to impeach President Guillermo Lasso led by the Correismo caucus in the Assembly. After demanding an increase in the subsidy for extra gasoline, ecopaís and diesel, they finally signed an "Agreement" with the Government.

- They had a less leading role in the overthrow of Abdalá Bucaram in 1997, which was led by the Quito middle class.

Interestingly, against Rafael Correa, who imprisoned multiple indigenous leaders and even seized CONAIE's headquarters, there was no similar indigenous strike.

It is difficult to think that a significant percentage of the “bases” of CONAIE, FENOCIN and FEINE (the three organizations that led the strike, the latter of “indigenous evangelicals”) were in agreement with this marginal Marxist tendency; but in any case Iza was elected president of CONAIE by a wide margin.

Now Iza has given a truce of 90 days, but without a doubt he will continue promoting "the tendencies of the revolutionary struggle in Ecuador", as he affirms in his book.

(*) A Spanish version of this column was published in Diario "El Universo" on July 15, 2022.

https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/columnistas/comunismo-indoamericano-es-barbarie-nota/