 Hydiw, wrth gwrs, wedi'i wneud y dyfodol ein gweithgaredd am ysgolwch yng Nghymru yn Yng ngyfgrifennu GŽedigol ar yng Nghymru Ffwrdd yn Newiwr. Mae'n gwneud yn gwneud, yn ddigon i'n gwneud am y cyfnod gyda'r ysgolwch, mae'r eich rei'r Prifysgol o Cymru Iwan Ddurge. Mae'n ddigon i gynnig y segment y ffordd yr Amazon yn ysgolwch. Felly, we've seen in the news recently international concern rising around deforestation in the Amazon Basin. President Duque has been at the core of many important international and regional discussions about how to address some of the challenges which are complicated and involve many different actors. And we're delighted to have in here exclusively to talk to us about some of these discussions and reflections and thoughts. Year, thank you Presidentaciones, thank you so youtube much for finding the time in your incredibly busy diary while you are here at the general assembly to talk to us. It's our honor to welcome you, and if I may, deforestation is clearly a complicated issue, and there are many, many different aspects. But, in your opinion, what are the most salient challenges at the root of the problem? And in particular, given the attention on the fires in the region, what is your assessment of the situation behind that. Well, first of all, thank you so much, Dominique, for this kind invitation. Marisol, thank you so much. Mrs Schwab, it's a pleasure to meet you, and my best regards to all of you. Let me begin by saying something, and it is that before we get to talk about the Amazon, before we get to talk about the tropical forest, let's look into the major problem, which it has to do with climate change and its effects. So when you look at a country like Colombia, Colombia only represents 0.4% of all the global green gases emissions. We have maybe the sixth or the seventh cleanest energy matrix in the world. We have 50% of the Paramos, 35% to 40% of our soil, our territory, continental territory. It's in the Amazon basin, but nevertheless we're one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change effects. So I mentioned this because to protect the Amazon and to protect the tropical forest is also part of our action plan to be responsible of how do we mitigate and how do we adapt ourselves to the effects of climate change. And the Amazon has been affected seriously by climate change. The dry seasons are longer, the rain takes longer to come. So the dry seasons are facing more fires. But besides that, we also face different kinds of enemies. Illegal mining. Illegal mining in some of the Amazon is a major threat. Illegal crops, we're talking about coca crops because people don't regularly realize that in order to plant one hectare of coca, two hectares of tropical forest have to be destroyed. The third thing is the illegal expansion of the agricultural frontier. And it affects national parks as well. Colombia has 49 national parks, many of them are in the Amazon, more than 4 million hectares. They're affected by that illegal expansion of the agricultural frontier, the agricultural border. And last but not least, we also face illegal cattle or we face illegal development of the wood industry. So in the case of Colombia, what have we done in one year? We began a strategy and the first part of the strategy was to put national resources at the cornerstone of our national security agenda. Protect the rivers, protect the forests, protect the Amazon, is part of our national security. The second thing, we had to make all the institutions work together. So we created the first anti-deforestation commission in Colombia. We decided to work with the military and the police to monitor the national parks and the different regions of Colombia when we have rainforest or tropical forest, and we started setting the example. When we identified people in illegal cattle, we ceased the cattle and we brought them to justice. So we started setting the example that whenever you decide to do something against nature, you will be chased, you will be brought to justice. And in one year, we got to reduce deforestation by 17%. Is it still enough? No, we have to go for more. But that has set the example. But as we're using the stick, we also need to use the carrot. And by that, we're trying to approach the indigenous communities and many peasants and tell them to switch to a new activity that is paying them for environmental services. So they become forest protectors, forest guards. They become biotourism promoters. They work with some of the centers where we study the Amazon, and I think that's the right way to go. So what is our goal? When we set the national development plan, we wanted to reduce deforestation by 30% in our term. But I consider that every day we have to go for more. And I am very confident and optimistic that we'll get a bigger number the way we're working right now. So maybe I wanted to put it in that broad scope, Dominique, because for us protecting the Amazon is a must. And if I just may finish with this question, it has to be a regional effort. The fires that we have seen in the Amazon, we cannot politicize the fires. The fires have happened in Brazil this year, but it also happened in Bolivia. We supported Bolivia. We haven't had a fire in the Colombian Amazon, but we could. So we have to prevent, but we cannot let the issue be politicized. And that's why we called for the Leticia fact where Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Guiana, Surinam, and Colombia signed the agreement where we all share objectives, measures, interinstitutional coordination and specific ways in how we can involve the communities to help us preserve that very important treasure that is in our sovereignty, but that has a major importance for the world. Thank you so much, Your Excellency. It's very interesting to hear your viewpoint on the challenge insofar as the effect of climate change on the natural resource base and then the response to that. And your diplomatic efforts have been exemplary in the Leticia agreement and bringing folks together. If we could talk a little bit about that, because there's been a lot of interest in that meeting and also in the discussions that you've had at the United Nations yesterday around these new alliances. What do you hope will emerge from this new momentum involving the country's administration? I think there are many facts being built. And actually yesterday was a great opportunity to talk about two of them. One was the Leticia pact and the Leticia pact involves us all in reducing deforestation, facing deforestation, but also how do we re-force the Amazon? So in the case of Colombia, we have a major goal by 2022. And I always look at the Minister of Environment and I always look at him with my calculator because we put in the National Development Plan the goal of planting 180 million trees by 2022. Now how do we do that? So we do that in coordination with the local environmental authorities on all of the states so that we re-forest some of the land that has been affected. And I think that is a major goal. When we look at the Leticia pact, all of the countries want to work in that line of action. But there is another pact, a very important pact that occurred yesterday and it has to do with the regional objective when it comes to non-conventional renewables and to renewable energies. So in a country like Colombia, as I said before, we have maybe the sixth or the seventh cleanest energy matrix in the world because 72% is based on hydro. When I assumed office, we only had 0.1% of all the energy matrix in non-conventional renewables. So we sat down with María Fernanda Suarez, the Minister of Energy that is here, and we decided with María Fernanda, let's go ambitious on this. So we said by 2022 we want to get to 10% of the installed capacity. And that means passing from less than 60 megawatts to 1500 megawatts. And I'm pretty certain that we will surpass maybe the target. Why? Because we want to get to 2030 with 20% of the installed capacity being non-conventional renewable, solar and wind. But yesterday we sat down with eight countries and we set the original target. We want to get to 2030 and set the regional target of 70% of renewables as the cornerstone of the regional energy matrix. And that has to do a lot with adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change because if we really want to excel, the whole idea is that energy plays a major role. So if we really want to be successful, we need to also start with the energy sector. That's a fantastic target. 70% renewable by 2030 and a mix of solar, wind, hydro among others. And this whole of government approach is something I know that you've pioneered under your presidency and with your ministers in Colombia, which seems to be quite a comprehensive approach across different ministries under leadership from yourself to tackle this, as you mentioned, across energy, across agriculture. It's not just an environmental issue, it's an economic issue for the region. Does that comprehensive approach also involve partnerships, for example with the private sector and others? I consider the private sector must play a leading role as well. Because for some they would argue that these are parts of the problem, not parts of the solution. But besides that, even before the private sector becomes a leader, you should build the right incentives. So for example in Colombia, when it comes to renewable energies, there was a bill issued in Congress and that bill allows the private sector to discount 50% of the corporate income tax, the investments that are made on energy efficiency and renewable energies. So that is really accelerating the change. So you see all two generations in many companies now, you see more companies thinking on energy efficiency, so it was the right incentive. But also we have given a signal on a specific, listen to this, on a specific sector, transportation. So we took the decision last year that we wanted this administration to be the administration that talked and that pushed the agenda on clean transportation. So we passed the electric vehicle bill. So it's zero trade tariff, VAT of 5% while the rest of VAT is 19%. We have a discount on what we call the annual gas revision. There's a discount on the insurance for auto accidents. And besides that, in cities there's no mobility restriction. So people are taking it seriously. And I decided myself to start setting the example. So I just bought an electric motorcycle and I want to be able to be a pedagogue on electric mobility. So that involves the private sector as well. And let me just mention two other examples. The circular economy policy. We built the first circular economy policy in Latin America under the three R's. We use, reduce, recycle and our mantra. Produce conserving, conserve producing. So we're getting the industrial sector to be very motivated. And last but not least, we involved cattle industry, palm oil industry, cocoa industry, among others in zero deforestation agreements. So all this is happening in Colombia and I can tell you we will only be successful if we also have the private sector as a leader of this transformation. Fantastic. So these packs involving the private sector, for example, in palm oil and dairy and beef, seem to be quite a unique and interesting approach for the region as a whole maybe as part of the delivery of these partnerships under the Letizio agreement and such. For example, in the case of cattle and beef specifically, we identified that one of the major things that we can do is to reduce the extension of the areas that are devoted for cattle. Because in Colombia we had on average one cow per hectare. Absurd. So that's why we were having 30 million hectares devoted to that purpose. Now, can you make a change? Yes, we can. And the way we do the change is not by restricting or opposing the sector of demonizing the sector as has happened in other places. But instead calling the sector and say, well, maybe you can do something different. Reduce the area. Be more productive using rotation. But additionally, why don't we think of civil pastures as a way of having best quality and at the same time capture in green gas emissions? So the goal that we have set with the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Environment is that we will go with 100,000 hectares in the next two years. And we will promote the civil pastures in the beef sector, in the cattle sector. And I think that's also a way of putting the debate on sustainable cattle industry. And I think that also might be a good story to tell in Colombia. Mr President, I know that your diary is extremely busy and there's an awful lot of people and an awful lot of other alliances and dimensions for you to build while you're here in New York. But your insights have been excellent. It feels like nudging towards a more sustainable, a bit more technologically driven economy for the Amazon Basin, higher productivity moving away from low volume, low cost outcomes and outputs from the region. Dominic, let me say something that I want to make this reflection here in the room. People don't regularly understand that the Amazon is not just jungle. There are 34 million people living in the Amazon. In the Amazon that is shared by many countries. And there are cities in the Amazon. We have the city of Leticia, we have the city of Mocoa, Peru has Pucalpa, Brazil has Manaus. And those cities are important. But there has to be a way to involve the cities more actively in the protection of the Amazon. So that's why I have launched a concept that I shared yesterday with Professor Schwab and that I've shared with the World Resources Institute. And we are going to present the report early next year with the concept of biodiversity. So it's how cities can participate actively in the protection of biodiversity on research, on sustainable development, on the best practices on different type of sectors and also how do we make out of the citizens of those biodiverse cities. The ethics of the 21st century where the protection of the environment is one of the most important issues of our time. So we're also working on that. Fantastic. Well, we're the World Economic Forum. We're delighted to support and encourage and do anything we can with our platforms to expand the concept of biodiverse cities within the region for that new economy for the Amazon. And on behalf of us of the World Economic Forum, also delighted with your leadership in hosting the Tropical Forest Alliance, the partnership that brings together the different companies and stakeholders of society in Colombia. Mr President, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you all for having us.