The environment minister is the redoubtable Maria Fernanda Espinoza, who is grappling with the contradictions of having a revolutionary new constitution that guarantees the rights of nature and all living entities, yet depends on vast oil reserves. She is adamant that Ecuador wants to find ways to get out of the petrol economy and invest in renewables to avoid climate change.
One plan is to guarantee to leave nearly one billion barrels of oil - nearly 20% of the country's reserves - in the ground if rich countries and individuals give them $3.6bn, half the oil's value. The money from the Yasuni project would go to a UN-run fund to pay for national park conservation, as well as health and education. It would save nearly 400m tonnes of emissions and is being hailed as an innovative climate change solution.
Hmmm. No one knows if this will catch on - even as we meet the minister, the press is reporting that the plan's biggest western backer, Germany, is having second thoughts - but the radical government led by Rafael Correa will push it at the global climate change talks in Mexico in November.
(Less remarkable, but something I have never seen before in 20 years of interviewing politicians, is the way Espinoza gets a senior civil servant to hold, brush and lovingly arrange her long brown hair throughout the hour-long interview. It's a cross between a hairdresing salon and a Vanity Fair photo-shoot.)
The leaders of the country's powerful, 12 million-strong indigenous peoples are also image conscious. Delfin Tenesaca, who runs the largest group, Ecuarunari, gives us an audience in front of a giant scarlet banner proclaiming human, water and other rights. The group sees climate change as an urgent social issue that can only be addressed by communities organising themselves. Read the full report here.
Source: John Vidal, guardian.co.uk.
