Muhamad was the Director for Climate Action Planning for Latin America in the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group.[3] Her work focuses on developing actions that allow Colombia to consolidate as a world power of life, through compliance with international agreements on climate change and loss of biodiversity, the protection of environmental defenders, and the fight against deforestation in the Amazon region.[3] She presided the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali.
Susana Muhamad was a sustainable development consultant for Shell Global Solutions International in The Hague, the Netherlands. She has supported various environmental causes through activism, as well as worked and collaborated with communities on the ground, non-governmental organizations, and human rights movements.[5][7] She served as the President of AIESEC in Colombia in 2000.[8]
One of her multiple works focuses on two fundamental concepts: development and sustainability. She believes that while development focuses on material progress and economic growth in a context of globalization, sustainability focuses on preserving natural resources for future generations.[9] The aim of sustainable development is to balance economic growth with the preservation of natural resources.[9] Her studies seek to understand the relationship between development and environmental sustainability, exploring the tensions that have arisen in Western civilization over the last two centuries from various philosophical perspectives and viewpoints of different actors.[9]
Susana Muhamad embarked on an extensive and participatory process to establish regulations for Visual Outdoor Advertising (PEV) from an environmental perspective. This initiative was prompted by citizen feedback from the 2011 Multipurpose Survey, where 179,464 people expressed concerns about excessive advertising across the city.[10] The administration aimed to develop a regulation framework through social and political legitimacy-building processes, involving various stakeholders such as academia, council members, interinstitutional representatives, and the PEV industry.[10] This endeavor seeks to establish guidelines for environmentally sustainable PEV practices, addressing regulatory ambiguity and promoting responsible behavior among both private and public actors in Bogotá.[10]
In the book El agua en la ciudad y los asentamientos urbanos, in the context of water management, she suggests rethinking the water-city relationship in Bogotá to address vulnerabilities caused by development.[11] It advocates for viewing water management through a sustainability lens, emphasizing the need for new infrastructure to manage water during extreme weather events, promote biodiversity, and mitigate urban heat island effects. This includes reclaiming waterways, using permeable materials, and integrating green spaces into urban areas.[11]
In Handbook of Strategic Environmental Assessment she discusses the potential of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.[12] She argues for including biodiversity as a key consideration in decision-making processes and outlines examples from international experiences, including South Africa and India, where SEA has been effective in supporting biodiversity conservation planning and stakeholder engagement.[12]
Political career
Muhamad was secretary of the environment and general secretary of the Mayor's Office of Bogotá. In 2019 she was elected city councilor, a position she held until the first semester of 2022.[citation needed]
In 2021, Muhamad was elected as vice president of the national coordination board of the Colombia Humana party, after this political movement officially received its legal status.[4]
Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development
Muhamad stressed that the environmental sector has been marginalized in past administrations, in addition to its purpose to work hand in hand with communities for the preservation of the environment, as Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world.[14] She has defended the Escazú Agreement within her agenda as Minister of Environment, in conjunction with the President and the Congress for the legislation and subsequent implementation of the agreements.[15]
Muhamad has been clear regarding her positions on three of the most important issues on her agenda as Minister of Environment.[which?]
Fracking
One of them, which has also been one of the most questioned by the opposition, is fracking. The government seeks to eliminate fracking as a means of extracting oil, since this method of extraction causes irreparable damage to the environment as well as to the atmosphere and water reserves.[16] In June 2023, she made an appearance with Frankie, the activist dinosaur icon from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), delivering an urgent message to the House of Representatives to address the climate crisis and avoid extinction.[17] There was a call to halt the use of fossil fuels worldwide and to ban fracking in Colombia to prevent further expansion of the extractive frontier.[17]
Animal welfare
In January 2023, Muhamad announced the creation of a division of animal protection within the ministry's Directorate of Forests, Ecosystems, and Biodiversity, as part of policies supporting animal welfare.[18] This initially led to fears of inaction among conservationists regarding the country's invasive hippopotamus population.[19]
On November 2, 2023, Muhamad revealed plans to control the growing hippopotamus population, estimated to be close to 200 individuals living along the Magdalena River. These involved neutering 40 hippopotamuses per year, as well as culling an unspecified number and relocating some to other countries, including Mexico, India and the Philippines.[20] While experts stated the potential danger of the hippopotamuses for the local ecosystem and agreed with the need to control the population, the plans were criticized for relying too much on the less effective sterilization methods. The risk of legal challenges being brought against culling due to public outcry was also mentioned, as were the logistical costs of exporting the hippopotamuses to other countries, which Muhamad said would be covered by the institutions that will receive the animals.[21] The plans were also criticized by animal rights activists, stating that sterilization would pose risks to both animals and veterinarians,[22] and opposing the culling of healthy individuals.[23]
2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference
Susana Muhamad (third from left) and members of the Colombian delegation pose for a photo at the opening ceremony of the COP16.
Muhamad served as the president of the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, lasting from October 21 to November 1.[24] On the inaugural day of the meeting, Muhamad presented Colombia's own National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan, called Plan de Acción por la Biodiversidad 2030 ("Plan of Action for Biodiversity 2030").[25][26] The document — which was estimated to require a total investment of 76.5 billion pesos, roughly corresponding to over $17.8 billion —[25] set six national goals and 191 targets needed to fulfill the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework by the end of the decade.[25][27]
