The Norway-Colombia agreement to protect rainforest and reduce global warming: success or failure?

Abstract

The Norwegian government has made an agreement with Juan Manuel Santos, the former Colombian president, to give Colombia USD $48 million yearly in order to reduce deforestation. This forms part of a greater support effort by Norway to countries in the South to halt climate change, through the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) instituted after the Paris Agreement in 2015. The way in which efforts to reduce deforestation have been implemented has, however, been met with criticism. For instance, Colombia ratified the Paris Agreement to reach zero net deforestation by -2020. Nonetheless, in 2016, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest increased by 44%. While Norway, through this investment in the forest, gives the appearance of being a climate concerned country, it also continues oil extraction. Norway thus exhibits double standards as it aims to maintain its position as an important producer of offshore oil and gas extraction, while pushing the problem of climate change onto the countries in the South. In this way, Norway is able to comply with the Paris Agreement requirements for reduction of CO2 emissions. This article examines the successes and failures of the Norwegian rainforest protection efforts in the case of Colombia, assessing the governance of the deforestation policies from the perspective of green Southern criminology and incorporating a critique of the neo-colonialist means of environmental protection established by the North.