Amazon Cooperation: The Climate Case for Gran Colombia Integration

Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador share portions of the Amazon rainforest—the world's largest carbon sink and a critical buffer against climate catastrophe. Protecting it requires coordination at regional scale.

The ACTO Summit

In August 2025, Petro hosted the 5th Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) Presidents' Summit in Bogotá. The eight Amazon nations—Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela—met to coordinate forest protection.

The summit produced the Bogotá Declaration, endorsing a $125 billion Tropical Forest Forever Facility to fund conservation. The scale of the proposal reflects the scale of the challenge—and the impossibility of addressing it nation by nation.

COP30 in the Amazon

November 2025's COP30 in Belém, Brazil marked the first time a UN climate summit was held in the Amazon itself. The symbolism was deliberate: bringing world leaders to witness what they're asked to save.

For Gran Colombia nations, COP30 offered an opportunity to present a unified position on climate finance, deforestation prevention, and just transition. A confederation would have more voice in such negotiations than individual states.

The Deforestation Crisis

The urgency is real. Amazon deforestation in Colombia jumped 50% in 2024, driven by cattle ranching, coca cultivation, and illegal mining. Similar pressures affect Venezuelan and Ecuadorian Amazon regions.

Fragmented national responses have failed. Illegal logging operations cross borders. Cattle ranchers move to whichever country has weaker enforcement. Criminal networks exploit jurisdictional gaps.

Why Integration Helps

Regional integration could transform Amazon protection:

• Coordinated enforcement: Cross-border operations against illegal logging
• Unified standards: No race to the bottom on environmental regulation
• Shared monitoring: Satellite surveillance covering the entire basin
• Joint financing: Bigger asks to international climate funds
• Collective bargaining: More leverage with developed countries on climate finance

Climate as Integration Driver

Climate change may be the issue that finally makes regional integration happen. The threat is too large for any single country to address. The solutions—energy transition, forest protection, climate adaptation—all benefit from scale.

Petro's clean energy confederation proposal recognizes this. By framing Gran Colombia around environmental cooperation, he's offering a rationale that transcends traditional political divisions. Left or right, everyone needs a livable planet.