March 2, 2023
4 days in Bogotá Colombia
I was invited to a workshop in Bogotá on Energy Communities, sponsored by USAID facilitated by the United States Energy Association (USEA). It was held at a high-end Hilton near the Airport. A bit on the workshop first.
USAID has and has had a long standing involvement in the alternative energy sector, to my surprise, and all over the world. It has been active in Colombia for some years, and USEA has subcontracted with USAID, to provide services. USEA organizes many of the workshops and local connections, it seems, though the USAID lead must be a Colombian national. Still, the lead in Colombia is very tilted (as would be expected) to US priorities. USAID also has decades-standing of subcontracting to the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and Tetratec. They dominate the field here. Their approach, tools, and personnel have been leading the approach to transition. As can be expected, its technocratic, with modeling expertise based in the US experience, such as their building energy models. They are shaped by a period of abundance and their approach is to develop alternatives that rely on relatively sophisticated technologies like smart meters, inverters and to the extent possible, large scale projects. In this case, they are turning their attention to community scale solar, as they bidden to do. Now, suddenly, and with Tetratec, experts in community consultation, they are developing the implementation strategies for Colombia. Amazing. It begs the question whether there is any local knowledge (yes), local NGOs/CBOs, yes, university research, yes. . . . Overlooked, marginalized and patronized. And to think NREL charges over 120% overhead to boot. It must also be noted that USAID’s principle budget expenditure remains on drug interdiction and the destruction of the coca crop. Interestingly, in the Colombian Amazon, deforestation today is largely for cattle grazing, not coca.
Well, there seems to be a developing backlash. Two indigenous people were invited from a region in Colombia I need to look up, and similarly 2 indigenous people from Canada were as well. It shook up the top down expert approach, or attempted to, NREL autistic to it; USAID perhaps seeing that if control is shared (let alone given) to local groups to determine what they want where, at what scale, their job is done? Except that USAID has a lot of development money which is probably properly seen as necessary. History repeats itself. So, the question is: can USAID pivot away from US-led approaches to supporting and helping to empower a more autochthonous approach? Certainly that seems like what USEA is trying to help happen.
Sadly I got to see little of Bogotá this time, I went to Usaquen, a lovely low scale neighborhood to the north, one of the original villages; it has a nice plaza and is largely a tourist destination with lots of restaurants and shops, older colonial architecture, but not a lot going on. The taxi back went through the bustling downtown, where I intend to stay if invited again. There was an epic downpour, blinding buckets of rain, pounding the taxi and all around, and even some hail. Traffic in Bogotá makes LA’s traffic seem light, and this despite an amazing bus and bike network (lots of bikes and motorcycles). The Bus Rapid Transit has 3 cars and circulates on a dedicated lane in the middle of the big boulevards with stops in the middle – the Transmillenio. They really cruise along. And there are myriad of other buses too. Still. Gridlock prevails.
The neighborhood I stayed in, Salitre, is by the industrial zone and airport ‘adjacent’, hence chain hotels like Hyatt, Hilton. There is a lot of housing, largely high-rise apartments for a middle to lower middle-class which I suspect replaced low rise shanty like residential, visible from the window of the plane spread east of the airport. It seems like the fulfillment of the Corbusian dream, intersected with plenty of common green spaces with children’s play equipment, trees and lawns (it rains a lot there) and serviced by 2 gigantic 3 story malls. No small neighborhood services to be found, zoned out? No cafés, no restaurants, no hair dressers, no tobacco/news stands, no nothing. The mall had it all, well mostly chain everything. Hard to find any small local store or brand, it was not present. Tony Hilfiger, NorthFace, Coq Sportif, Adidas. . . no end of choice. The immense grocery store was dominated by corporate brands like Coca Cola and its myriad of products. Most food was processed and packaged. There was no fresh milk, but a rather astonishing number of processed milk products of various types. Many different yogurts for example. And lots of UHT milk of different cream intensities. People’s shopping carts were full of packaged products as a result, and fresh food was scarce. Oh, and you could also buy clothing and much more in this mega store. On Sunday afternoon it was teeming with customers. The model of the West, and mostly emanating from N. America, has deeply permeated daily life in Colombia, accompanied by obesity, car dependence and, likely consumerism. It is a success story in the transformation of local culture, but surely, it is true, this all began with the Spanish!
By way of contrast, there was a folk festival on a square adjacent to the mall where there were dancers from a local amateur dance studio, who performed various numbers, food vendors and little artisanal stands. It was well attended, and included families and extended families. Such a contrast with the mall.
The rest of the area housed an outpost of the city trash service and at 6 am you could see the trucks being started up, lights flashing from the hotel room, and there was an adjacent cement plant, DHL distribution center, another mysterious distribution center where trucks were loaded up with big wooden boxes. And amidst all this, large vacant parcels of land, very green. In one area, probably 20 acres, there were horses grazing. Great mixity in one sense, but in another, quite sterile in the residential zone. One surprising thing was the number of dogs, big small and in between, dogs everywhere, and seemingly relatively well behaved. Their owners take them down to the green spaces to run around after being cooped up in an apartment for who knows how long. There is also a vibrant dog walking sector, in Usaquen, one dog walker had 11 dogs of various types and breeds. He controlled them marvelously, it was fascinating actually! Dogs, dogs, dogs. Perhaps a result of Covid.
Despite my rather short and corporate stay, Bogotá and Colombia remain seductive. The people are welcoming and smiling, the country is magnificent, there is a certain national sense of confidence that is wonderful. There is huge diversity of food stuffs, and the fruit are amazing. But reliance on the likes of USAID or NREL, must be done with caution and care, but that is obvious.