“Winds of Change”, a children's story that MinAmbiente created to explain climate change

In Glasgow, Scotland, within the framework of COP26 in November 2021, President Iván Duque and Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development Carlos Eduardo Correa launched Colombia's Long-Term Climate Strategy E2050. A State policy that seeks to comply with what is agreed in the Paris Agreement, in order to protect biodiversity and contribute to the mitigation of the effects of climate change on the planet.

The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change that seeks to establish goals and commitments that will enable all countries to build a future in which the planet's temperature does not exceed 2°C. This agreement provides a legal framework for financial, technical and capacity-building support to countries that need it.

Among the strategies contained in the E2050 plan, the aim is to develop pedagogical tools that allow citizens to communicate to citizens the goals that Colombia set for achieving net zero emissions of polluting gases by 2050.

One of these goals is to reduce by 51 per cent the production of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), which occurs in daily activities such as riding a car or bus, wasting food, not recycling, leaving the lights on, cutting down trees, among many other activities, that affect the planet and heat it, since they accumulate in the atmosphere . Which generates climate change.

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For this reason, the Ambiente portfolio presented the story Vientos de cambio, a story of carbon neutrality, a story that, “against the background of the Colombian context, which takes place in the year 2050 and which allows children and young people to to know what the great transformations that the country will have will be like, when it achieves the important goal of carbon neutrality”, said the ministry, in a statement.

The story is starred by a family made up of Valeria, Martín, Victoria, Tomás and Rocío, who decide to walk in the footsteps of their grandfather Jorge, in order to get to know and compare their favorite places and show how over time, the city has changed in a positive way and the conditions for inhabiting the territory have changed improved significantly due to the achievement of achieving net zero GHG emissions.

Minister Correa assured that “this story is a fundamental tool to explain to the new generations in a simple way what Colombia's bets are in 2050, so that they can discover the country we want to inherit them.”

Carbon neutrality is one of Colombia's goals that President Iván Duque has most exposed and defended on national stages and before world leaders. A few months after the end of his term, the president has emphasized that this strategy is one of his most far-reaching policies at the national level. It is executed by MinAmbiente and supported by the French Government through its agencies AFD and Expertise France.

The Paris Agreement is a milestone in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all countries together in a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.

“Our goal is to achieve a territory with a sustainable economy, with excellent air quality, with zero net gas emissions, with cities linked to nature, among other purposes. Therefore, I invite you all to read this magnificent story and to join us on this path towards zero emissions”, concluded Minister Correa at the launch of the children's book.

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