Focus on Arts and Ecology

Far-right firebrand Abelardo de la Espriella wants to double down on fossil fuels and extinguish a new global movement born in Colombia. 

By Sam Meadows, June 19, 2026

Until 2024, the football club of Barrancabermeja, a medium-sized city in central Colombia, was called Alianza Petrolera FC. Its nicknames included the Oilmen and the Refiners. The club rebranded to Alianza FC that year, dropping references to oil.

Barrancabermeja, however, retains its deep connection to black gold. For more than 100 years it has been home to the biggest oil refinery in the country, where as much as 65% of Colombia’s fuel is processed.

It is a fascinating city. Truly beautiful, with its network of rivers and lakes populated by wildlife including reclusive manatees. But it is impossible to escape the spectre of oil: the refinery dominates Barrancabermeja’s skyline.

Like in other Latin American countries, the state oil company Ecopetrol is a source of national pride in Colombia, and oil and gas is seen as central to prosperity.

Colombia’s outgoing president Gustavo Petro has been attempting to change that mindset. Upon taking office in 2022, he paused new oil and gas licenses. Petro has positioned the country as a leader in the anti-fossil-fuel movement by, for example, creating zones in which mining and hydrocarbon enterprise are banned. And in April, the northern coastal city of Santa Marta hosted the first Transition Away conference. The international summit was an attempt to build a “coalition of the willing”: nations that agree on the need to ditch oil and gas.

Petro has had a difficult presidency, with low approval ratings. It has been dragged down by – among other things – ultimately unsuccessful efforts to negotiate with the country’s armed groups. As such, his anti-fossil policies are now under threat.

Colombians will vote for his successor this weekend. Polls show a likely victory for Abelardo de la Espriella, a colourful figure who found riches through a range of companies including clothing, wine and rum. The outspoken lawyer and business owner has campaigned on pro-fracking messages and generally advocates for fossil fuels.

A victory for the brash businessman would put a dent in Colombia’s fossil fuel phaseout. It would also cast a shadow over the progress made at Transition Away. Petro’s struggle to win the information war over fossil fuels, even after hosting a major new international conference dedicated to phasing them out, underlines just how challenging this is.

A false dawn?

As well as the oil and gas moratorium, Petro also planned for Ecopetrol to diversify its activities, including into renewables. In 2024, more than 40% of the company’s budget was dedicated to the energy transition; the share of contemporary renewable technology capacity in Colombia grew to 15% during his presidency.

“I think we have to applaud Petro for his leadership on this agenda,” says Gustavo Pinheiro, an analyst at the energy think-tank E3G. “He showed you can walk the talk and lead by example.”

However, while new fossil fuel exploration was paused, this did not impact the 381 production contracts already in effect. Petro’s attempts to outlaw fracking, meanwhile, were unsuccessful.

Additionally, many of the Petro administration’s environmental achievements were carried out by decree, meaning a future administration could easily unravel them. De la Espriella would surely aim to do so.

During his campaign, De la Espriella has advocated for fracking and restarting exploration for hydrocarbons. He has called energy independence a national security issue and suggested scepticism of an accelerated transition: “A serious country doesn’t give up its gas on an ideological whim.” This would mean “developing discovered fields more quickly” and “unblocking” production. In the first round of voting on 31 May, he led with more than 43% of the vote. This puts him ahead of Ivan Cepeda, the candidate for Petro’s Historic Pact party, who received 41%.

The Barrancabermeja problem

Petro’s attempts to wean the country off fossil fuels were met with opposition from the sector. According to the country’s main oil workers’ union, Ecopetrol supports some 100,000 jobs in the country and the oil sector accounts for nearly 6% of Colombia’s GDP.

The Colombian public was also sceptical. A 2025 survey of almost 2,500 adults across 141 cities and municipalities found that 78% agreed the oil and gas industry was necessary to finance the state’s social and public investment programmes. Eighty percent considered oil to be a positive industry for Colombia.

“The idea of the transition was probably the most attacked [policy] from the beginning of Petro’s government,” says Colombia’s Andrés Gómez, head of advocacy for Latin America at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative.

Pinheiro adds that they received a poor response from the markets: “Markets were shaking in the short term. But then everything returned to normality as it usually does, and it was not the end of the world. That’s one of the challenges we have to overcome.”

Economic concerns have been seized upon by De la Espriella. Echoing other leaders in the region and globally, he says doubling down on oil and gas is the answer.

The argument that oil and gas is a route to riches remains compelling for many. But the reality is that fossil fuels continue to require government subsidies to remain profitable, while the costs of developing renewable energy is falling rapidly. As Pinheiro says: “The transition is already happening in the real economy. The price point of wind and solar is so competitive everywhere you look in Latin America.”

While getting that message across to voters is a challenge, there are signs that those most affected by extraction are also likely to oppose further exploration. In Barrancabermeja, nearly 60% of voters in the election’s first round backed Cepeda, who has pledged to continue Petro’s fossil fuel policies.

Yuly Velásquez, a fisher working in the rivers around Barrancabermeja, says she fears for the impact of oil exploration on fish stocks following the election: “We are worried by the shamelessness of [right-wing politicians], who say development is ending. Hydraulic fracturing is what would generate more hunger and displacement.”

The future of Transition Away

The Transition Away conference, which drew attendees from 57 countries, was borne out of frustration with the failure of successive UN climate summits to reach consensus on phasing out fossil fuels. Although the UN’s 2023 climate summit, COP28 in Dubai, led to an agreement for the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era, subsequent meetings have failed to make progress.

The Transition Away conference exists outside of a UN process that aims for unanimous agreement. Instead, Transition Away aims to cultivate a union of countries that have already decided to move away from fossil fuels.

While it was never intended that the first Transition Away conference would result in binding commitments, attending countries expressed a joint intention to draw up national “roadmaps” for weakening fossil fuel reliance. It also established an independent scientific committee that will assist countries in this endeavour. Tuvalu will host the next conference in 2027, supported by Ireland.

If Colombia elects De la Espriella and returns to oil and gas extraction, it will be “difficult” for the movement, Gómez acknowledges – but not a terminal blow: “Now we have Ireland and Tuvalu [leading] the Santa Marta process and that’s something really helpful. [Colombia] did a really good job for movement and there is this crack in the system. There is a real pathway that we as a global movement have to use.”

In Colombia, environmentalists applaud the leadership the country has shown in the push to phase out fossil fuels. Many are now waiting anxiously to discover what comes next.

Meanwhile, Colombian environmentalists like Yuvelis Morales Blanco of Puerto Wilches – a winner of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize for her work opposing fracking – are deeply worried by De la Espriella’s fossil fuels rhetoric. She has faced threats in response to her campaigning. “It seems to me extremely irresponsible and disrespectful to the communities that such an important issue is taken with such lightness,” she says. “To us, conversations about fracking have almost cost us our lives.”

Campaigning for votes when temperatures soar is dangerous, but many say India is in denial about the problem. 

By Priyanka Thirumurthy, Nigazh A.I., April 24, 2026

On 13 February, 37-year-old Suraj stood for nearly four hours in open ground in Salem, Tamil Nadu, waiting to hear a campaign speech by an actor turned politician. The heat intensified in the early afternoon. Minutes into the speech, Suraj collapsed, clutching his chest. Less than an hour later, he was declared dead.

In the hours before his collapse, Suraj had been exposed to a Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) above 38C, according to a study by Poovulagin Nanbargal (Friends of the Earth), an environmental organisation based in Tamil Nadu.

UTCI calculates a “feels like” temperature that takes into account not just ambient air temperature but also humidity, wind and sunlight. Values above 32C indicate strong heat stress, and above 38C indicate very strong or extreme stress, where even minimal activity can be dangerous. When core body temperature exceeds 39C, it can lead to dehydration, organ failure and death.

Suraj’s passing reflects a largely unacknowledged reality. India’s elections are increasingly unfolding in dangerously hot conditions; conditions which are not treated as a public health risk even while they are claiming lives.

Heatwaves are only likely to get worse with climate change, bringing more health impacts and risks to public health, water resources and vulnerable populations.

A big month for voting

This month, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry all host regional elections, between April 9 and 29.

In the days leading up to the elections, temperatures surged across Kerala with the mercury reaching 38C. The India Meteorological Department has issued heatwave warnings on several dates in April when voting was occurring, with yellow alerts in 12 out of Kerala’s 14 districts.

On the ground, such warnings have reshaped campaigns. Across states, parties adjusted schedules, doctors prepared for a surge in heat-related illness, and workers described mounting difficulty operating outdoors.

In Kozhikode district, campaigning has shifted to early mornings and evenings.

“People start getting rashes and fatigue if we’re outside after 11.30 am,” says Jayesh M, a worker with the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Even with shifted rallies, heat-related illnesses still spike during these gatherings.

“We see giddiness, breathlessness and dehydration every time there is a large gathering,” says Kalpana Mahanta, a doctor in Guwahati, Assam.

This echoes the 2024 general election, which coincided with one of India’s most intense heatwaves. Tens of thousands of suspected heatstroke cases were reported, along with hundreds of deaths. Estimates range from 360 to over 700.

Candidates themselves struggled. “Despite hydrating constantly, I found it hard to cope,” recalls Singhai Ramachandran who contested in 2024 for opposition party AIADMK. He remembers candidates fainting, severe sunburns, and hospitalisations due to dehydration.

“We hold rallies in the evening now,” says A. Saravanan, a spokesperson for the ruling DMK party. “But crowds are smaller and consist mostly of dedicated party cadres. The general public avoids the heat.”

Aditi Kundu of SwitchON Foundation, which works on sustainability and climate issues, also says voters are increasingly reluctant to attend political events in the heat.

“For the last few elections, parties are giving coconut water at rallies to supporters. We have seen them even giving hats and umbrellas to prevent sunstroke. But this alone may not be enough to counter the impact of high… temperatures”.

Her research in West Bengal shows heat is no longer an occasional disruption but a persistent crisis with 61.7% of respondents saying they know someone who has died due to heatwaves.

Yet some political leaders are dismissive of suggestions this impacts elections. “People here are used to the heat,” says Trinamool Congress vice president Jayaprakash Majumdar from West Bengal. “Turnout depends on political conditions, not climate.”

Some experts argue this perception reflects a deeper issue: the impact of heat on health in India is often unseen and unrecorded, and therefore unacknowledged. Suraj’s death in February, before peak summer, fits this pattern: it was officially attributed to a heart attack, obscuring the likely role of heat.

“What you cannot count, you cannot act on,” says Apekshita Varshney, founder of HeatWatch. “When official numbers say only a few dozen people died from heat in a season, policymakers can justify inaction.”

The real number may be orders of magnitude higher, she says.

Some deaths are recorded as heat related, however.

The Xylom and Dialogue Earth analysed 20 suspected heat deaths recorded in the summers of 2024 and 2025 by NGO HeatWatch via media reports from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal. The mortalities occurred in the months of February to July, when campaigning and voting usually take place in Indian elections.

Of them, 17 occurred when UTCI exceeded 38C. The remaining three occurred above 32C and involved highly vulnerable elderly individuals or intense physical exertion.

Even where these dangerous heat conditions existed, there was often no heatwave declared: alerts were issued in only five of the 13 locations where deaths occurred.

In 2024, most deaths occurred in April and May. In 2025, many occurred as late as July, particularly in Assam, where humidity drives prolonged heat stress. Across states, UTCI levels remained above dangerous thresholds for much of the February-July election cycle.

Lack of guidance

Hosting outdoor elections without heat warning systems and cooling measures is a major risk to health. But official monitoring and guidance is lacking.

An Election Commission official confirmed to The Xylom and Dialogue Earth that the body maintains no official data on heat-related illnesses or deaths among voters, polling staff and security personnel during elections.

Media reports in 2024 stated that the commission had set up a task force to evaluate how heat impacts elections, but the official said that, to the best of his knowledge, this work had not been conducted.

“We do not oversee campaigns and political rallies. We leave it to the state’s chief election officers to issue advisories that are required according to the local requirements,” they say.

Archana Patnaik is chief election commissioner of Tamil Nadu. She says there is a checklist that must be followed for campaigns in the heat.

“Public meeting venues should have shade, shelter, water and medical aid for the benefit and convenience of the public. Basically, if any advisory is issued on heatwaves then dos and don’ts [are] to be followed by all,” she says.

Some experts want more.

“The Election Commission by now should have given advisories to parties that they cannot hold rallies in the afternoon heat. They are yet to do this,” says G Sundarrajan, a member of the Tamil Nadu Governing Council on Climate Change.

Heat and health experts say there are relatively easy-to implement solutions: shifting rally times; pre-event heat risk assessments; mandatory cooling zones; medical staff; caps on crowd density; and thresholds above which outdoor political events are simply not permitted. But advisories alone are insufficient, many believe, and there needs to be strict monitoring of campaigns to ensure they comply.

India frequently struggles with preparedness for the impact of heat in large crowds. The deaths at the Marina Beach air show in Tamil Nadu in 2024, and at a government award ceremony in Maharashtra in 2023, demonstrate this.

“Advisories alone do not translate to action,” says Abhiyant Tiwari, climate resilience and health lead for NRDC India. “There needs to be a strict monitoring and implementation process in place,” he adds.

Moving beyond temperature

Globally, more advanced approaches already exist to monitor heat and assess impact on human health than are used in India, according to a 2021 book on the use of UTCI. Across Europe, UTCI is integrated into public health systems, helping authorities anticipate and respond to heat risks.

In Poland, a UTCI above 32C is linked to a more than 25% increase in mortality risk, guiding public advisories and preparedness, the book states. In Portugal, high-resolution UTCI forecasts are shared with civil protection agencies. This enables targeted interventions, studies show, such as activating emergency plans to protect vulnerable populations.

UTCI data also feeds into pan-European decision-support systems used by first responders to prepare for extreme weather events, the book adds. These systems help to shift responses from reactive to preventive by translating complex climate data into clear and actionable guidance.

In India, however, large outdoor election events continue without integrating such tools into planning or risk assessment.

As temperatures rise, consequences become more visible. In the current elections, in which around one in five voters could go to the polls, the signs are that heat means some people in India will suffer for their political rights.

Some may end up forgoing them entirely.

In Part 2, we examine what happens on polling day itself: how heat shapes voter turnout, who is excluded from the democratic process as a result, and what it will take to make elections safer in a warming world.

This article is a collaboration between The Xylom and Dialogue Earth.

 An important environmental story from China, synthesised from local and international media, June 19, 2026

On 8 June, construction began on a new water channel at the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei, to meet surging shipping demand since the dam opened in 2003.

A new double-line, five-stage shipping channel will be built to complement the existing double-line lock.

State media Xinhua refers to it as a “comprehensive project integrating water conservancy, navigation and ecological functions”.     

In 2011, cargo throughput at the Three Gorges lock exceeded 100 million tons for the first time, reaching its designed capacity 19 years ahead of schedule. By 2025, it had reached 173 million tons, according to CCTV (China Central TV). The new channel, which is slated for completion in 2033, will increase capacity to 336 million tons.  

Xinhua reports that the project will include fish passages, in an efffort to help restock rare and endemic Yangtze fish species, and a seeming answer to previous research finding that dam construction and reservoir impoundment have damaged spawning habitats.

Other green construction measures will include reducing the volume of excavated spoil, promoting its resource recovery and reuse, and optimising construction site layouts, according to China Environmental News.

Discussions and technical studies regarding capacity expansion have been going on for more than ten years. The feasibility study for this new corridor project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission last year. 

The Three Gorges Dam was designed to provide flood control, hydropower generation and improved navigation along the Yangtze. “The world’s largest clean energy corridor”, consisting of six major hydropower stations along the river, has surpassed 4 billion gigawatt-hours in cumulative electricity generation, according to People’s Daily. 

Research finds the project has also had ecological consequences and social impacts, including altered river hydrology, sediment retention, biodiversity disruptions, and resident displacement and resettlement issues influencing 1.13 million people.

(Sources: Dialogue Earth)

India’s new foreign investment policy, China’s slowing battery demand, and the African market create a new opportunity in India. 

By Alok Gupta, June 12, 2026

The rising fuel cost keeps eating into my income,” says 60-year-old Ramsurat, an app-based cab driver in New Delhi. Ramsurat first felt the pinch back in the 90s, when he was a young truck driver in his hometown of Uttar Pradesh. The 1990-91 Gulf War between Kuwait and Iraq pushed up fuel costs in India, which impacted truck driver incomes, forcing him and others like him to move to Delhi in search of work opportunities.

He recalls that truck drivers back then would paint the fuel tanks of their trucks with witticisms like, Thoda kam peena meri rani, bahut mehengi hai Iraqi paani (Drink less, my queen, the oil from Iraq is pricey).

Since then, there have been multiple global events – hurricanes and wars – that have resulted in fuel price fluctuations. This year, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Iran war has led to yet another massive global fuel crisis, exposing regional and global cooperation on e-mobility.

India has had to revise fuel prices four times since 15 May. The fuel shortage has also prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce austerity measures, requesting people save fuel by using public transport, carpooling and avoiding foreign travel.

Every global crisis creates a “double whammy effect”, says Nikit Abhyankar, co-author of a UC Berkeley report on India’s oil-guzzling transportation sector. “Price of crude oil rises, and it also weakens Indian rupee. A 10% rise in crude oil and a 5% depreciation of the rupee means the cost of crude oil gets expensive by more than 15%,” he tells Dialogue Earth. Since the US-Iran war, the rupee has declined nearly 5.5% against the US dollar.

The report observes that a transition to electric vehicles (EVs) could reduce crude oil imports to India by over 90%, saving USD 240 billion annually, by 2047. But India is still a low-adoption country, with EVs still out of reach for many.

EV sales in India rose to merely 2.08 million in 2024, from 50,000 in 2016, according to Niti Aayog, a government think-tank, casting serious doubts on India’s 30% EV target for the transportation ecosystem by 2030.  

On average, battery EVs and hybrids cost about INR 1-2 lakh (USD 1,000-2,000) more than internal combustion engine cars, primarily due to the high battery cost. “That’s almost half of my annual income,” says Pankaj Kumar, another cab driver. “I want to own a hybrid electric car, but I don’t see many charging stations within the city and on highways.”

India is yet to get on the battery manufacturing fast track. The country has achieved only 2.8% of its incentive-linked battery manufacturing targets, according to a January 2026 study put together by think-tank the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). A series of lapses, coupled with a lack of policy-level coordination, has plagued battery manufacturing, the study shows.

Besides, India imported USD 1.8 billion of lithium-ion batteries in 2022, 85% of which came from China.

Notably, on 10 March, India relaxed foreign direct investment restrictions on land-bordering countries imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paves the way for Chinese investment in selected industries, including battery manufacturing, and eases bottlenecks for collaboration.

China’s overcapacity in battery manufacturing and a slowdown in domestic demand, coupled with the African demand for Indian-made vehicles, might just create the right conditions for India to expand its e-mobility sector.

India’s incentives

Despite the financial benefits of reducing fossil fuel imports and curtailing toxic emissions that choke Indian cities, EV penetration hasn’t risen as expected.

To tackle this issue, the Indian government launched a USD 2.47 billion production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme in 2021, under the Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) initiative. The idea was to incentivise domestic battery manufacturing to make EVs affordable and increase adoption.

But there were a few hiccups. The scheme’s beneficiaries faced significant supply chain and implementation bottlenecks, such as stringent domestic value-addition requirements and an aggressive two-year installation timeline, leading to delays in commissioning capacity, the IEEFA study notes.

The incentive also botched the selection of beneficiaries. In 2022, one of those picked, Hyundai Global Motors, withdrew its bid after Hyundai Motor India stated that the other company was in no way related to it or the renowned South Korean firm, Hyundai Motor Company.

The rest of the beneficiaries, Ola Cell Technologies, Reliance New Energy, Rajesh Exports, and ACC Energy Storage, had no experience in the battery manufacturing sector. Experienced battery makers like Exide and Amara Raja participated but were not selected in the auction, signifying design gaps in the scheme, says Charith Konda, co-author of the IEEFA study. “Beneficiaries also needed Chinese engineers and technicians to set up plants, but there were significant delays in visa approvals.”

According to the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), an industry platform for energy storage and electric mobility with over 100 energy companies as members, the PLI scheme had been implemented more slowly than anticipated due to the complexities of battery cell manufacturing. The sector is capital-intensive, with long gestation periods and significant reliance on technology partnerships. “While technology transfer has taken time to materialise, gaps in skilled workforce availability, limited focus in the initial phase on upstream supply chain development, and volatility in the global geopolitical environment have also impacted timelines,” the IESA wrote in a consolidated written response to Dialogue Earth.

“The PLI scheme has nevertheless played an important role in catalysing investments and initiating domestic capacity creation,” they said.

The relaxation of foreign direct investment, the IESA noted, could now accelerate e-mobility in India by bringing in capital, advanced technologies, and integration with global supply chains. But “appropriate safeguards may be required to avoid over-dependence on a single geography and to ensure resilience, transparency and long-term supply chain security”, the IESA said.

China’s collaboration

While India is in a slow lane for battery manufacturing, China is making four times the number of batteries demanded by the country’s EV makers.

On 27 March, Chinese EV manufacturer BYD, one of the world’s largest EV players, recorded a drop in profit for the first time in four years due to slowing domestic demand and fierce domestic competition.

Concerned by the demand slowdown, major Chinese EV manufacturers started looking out a few years ago.

In 2023, BYD submitted a USD 1 billion investment proposal to set up an EV plant in Hyderabad, but India rejected the proposal, citing security concerns.

However, joint ventures of Chinese and Indian companies assemble some of the most prominent EVs in India. Indian steelmaker JSW and Chinese manufacturer SAIC Motor work together under the popular MG Motor brand. “In 2024, the joint venture produced about half of its electric cars sold in India domestically, while the other half were imported from China,” noted an International Energy Agency report.

“Rather than relying on imports of EVs and battery components from China, India should leverage the improving bilateral ties to attract Chinese investment and technical expertise for domestic manufacturing of EVs and components,” says Konda.

But India-China relations are delicate at best. A trust deficit persists due to their long history of geopolitical tensions.

Suranjali Tandon, an associate professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, observes a narrowing gap between inflows and outflows in foreign direct investment from China. This, she says, has contributed to India’s decision to relax its investment rules for land-bordering countries. But there continues to be “scepticism about the collaboration” between the two nations, she adds.

While India navigates this challenging but co-dependent relationship, it has the opportunity to grow its e-mobility market outside of India in African nations, perhaps in collaboration with China. Countries in the Global South face similar policy challenges, and India, with its robust economic and diplomatic ties to African nations, is well-positioned to help decarbonise the continent’s transportation sector, says Akanksha Golchha, a Centre for Strategic International Studies fellow and co-author of a report on India-Africa electric mobility partnership.  

African ambitions

Data shows India and Africa share a similar e-mobility landscape; about 85% of the registered vehicles in Burkina Faso and 70% in Uganda are two-wheelers.

Indian automobile companies are not only starting to dominate Africa’s two- and three-wheeler markets but are reportedly doing this at the expense of Chinese competition. Bajaj Auto dominates this segment in over a dozen African markets, with a 40% market share, according to the Economic Times.

Other companies, such as Mahindra & Mahindra, TVS and Tata Motors, have assembly lines in various African countries, utilising locally sourced components to produce automobiles, boosting trade and diplomatic relations between the governments of African countries and India.

“India and Africa share similar transportation systems and challenges, which makes Indian two-wheelers and three-wheelers a roaring success in many African countries, built for varying road terrains, high fuel efficiency and low maintenance,” says Golchha.

Transport on the continent guzzles oil, accounting for 69% of total final consumption of oil products. Researchers suggest that accelerating South-South cooperation to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles, which constitute 90% of Africa’s transportation fleet, could save millions of dollars in crude oil costs and liberate the local population from air pollution.

While India expands its footprint in the African market, laying down the groundwork for the pipeline dream that is electric mobility, EV adoption continues to be a challenge back home.

For now, Ramsurat will need to switch between petrol and compressed natural gas, the two fossil-fuel options provided by the government, until EVs become affordable.

“I fear by then I’ll retire,” he says.