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In a series of public consultations organized by the 5th Congressional Committee to consider a nationwide ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), CHRE’s Executive Director and Policy Advisor to the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, J. Daniel Taillant delivered a presentation to the Colombian congressional committee, offering evidence of extensive climate change causing invisible methane and other toxic emissions that he and colleagues from Earthworks registered with an optical infrared FLIR camera at over 50 oil and gas sites across the country.
Taillant also offered testimony to the Colombian Congress on the various impact dimensions of hydraulic fracturing, including its intensive water use, resulting air quality deterioration, heavy truck and equipment impacts including to roads, bridges, traffic congestion and to accidents, as well as earthquakes caused by extensive deep water injection wells. Taillant also stressed that fracking (and oil/gas operations generally) cause serious health impacts and human rights violations including severe respiratory illnesses and other diseases for workers at fracking sites, and for communities living nearby oil and gas operations.
“In terms of climate change”, Taillant stressed, “Methane, a short lived climate pollutant, is not a transition fuel as the oil and gas industry wants us to believe, it’s more than 80 times worse than CO2 for the climate, and if we do not reduce methane emissions quickly we cannot keep global warming to 1.5 degrees to avoid catastrophic tipping points. Colombia should reduce oil and gas production over time, and reject hydraulic fracturing.”
UN Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights and the Environment David Boyd and Marcos Orellana on Toxic Waste also participated in the two day event, and delivered damning evidence that fracking is highly contaminating, results in severe violation of human rights and that oil and gas, and particularly fracking, is very detrimental to climate change. Both UN Rapporteurs strongly urged Colombia not to allow hydraulic fracturing to develop in the country.
Links to materials and press
Presentation before Congress by J. Daniel Taillant, CHRE Executive Director
https://center-hre.org/wp-content/uploads/Presentacion-Fracking-Taillant-12-de-febrero-2021.pptx
Complete Congressional Event
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyKgSI1Pyeg&ab_channel=CámaradeRepresentantes
a) Presentation by J.D. Taillant, CHRE: minute 2:28:30
b) Presentation by Marcos Orellana, UN Rapporteur: 2:41:19
Press coverage on UN Rapporteur speeches before Congress
a) https://pbiusa.org/content/united-nations-special-rapporteur-david-boyd-calls-colombia-pass-law-prohibit-fracking
b) https://sostenibilidad.semana.com/medio-ambiente/articulo/fracking-onu-reitero-el-llamado-al-congreso-a-prohibir-esta-tecnica-en-colombia/59356
Video of speech by Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on Toxic Waste
https://youtu.be/9XvDTHFxSNg
LINK to Video Images of Emissions at Colombian oil/gas sites:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9BS7nDf-8trxRsE8QMEMSPGa57Rj6fLD
Video clips of News Coverage:
a) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zgPne0spmE&t=7s
b) (CARACOL): https://noticias.caracoltv.com/colombia/denuncian-posible-presencia-de-gases-contaminantes-en-algunas-zonas-de-explotacion-petrolera
c) https://sostenibilidad.semana.com/impacto/articulo/gases-toxicos-del-sector-petrolero-generan-contaminacion-en-colombia/46598