The latest update of the research program “The Green future index”, carried out by the academic journal MIT Technology Review, whose objective is to measure the progress of several countries towards a greener future, revealed that Uruguay went from position 20 in 2021 to position 38 in 2022.
According to posts made on the Twitter social network, the deputy of the Broad Front, Martina Casás, criticizes the government for not committing to the environment: “One of the policies that affect these indices is to withdraw the mixture of fuel with biodiesel. Before, we mixed up to 5% with biodiesel and the goal for 2025 was to reach 8% and, now, we are at 0% due to an article in last year’s accountability. What is happening is that Uruguay is no longer investing or leading in energy policies”.
On the other hand, the environmental organization “Fridays for Future Uruguay” staged a demonstration on Friday, July 22, in front of the Ancap offices in Montevideo as a protest against the country’s oil exploration on the grounds that “this is not the way to build a sustainable future”.
The explorations will be carried out by the APA Group and the Shell oil company according to an ANCAP statement through “the drilling of an exploratory well in the initial period of four years.” In addition, on May 25, 2022, a contract was signed between ANCAP and the company Challenger Energy to also explore the marine platform in search of hydrocarbons.
The environmental organization states that “Eytan Uliel, executive director of Challenger Energy, one of the companies that will explore one of the blocks in the country, declared that for ‘a very low cost’ they were able to obtain an exploration license of extremely high quality, ‘with a potential of recoverable resources of more than one billion barrels’. Additionally, they reported that the country is not respecting the Paris agreement to reduce emissions to curb the impacts of climate change.
“We believe that Uruguay, by committing to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, cannot continue to allow such a large setback to occur when there are renewable alternatives at this time.”
