Ailyn Ceballos Jimenez

Abstract: Environmental studies in human geography call for reflection on the relationship between humanity and the space it inhabits. Therefore, the current relevance of the discussion among leaving fossil fuels underground (LFFU) as the most pertinent mitigation strategy to halt climate change and accomplish global warming below 2 °C with special efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C, established in the Paris Agreement. Nevertheless, even when the literature emphasizes the responsibility of developed countries to lead the mitigation efforts, the Global South takes relevance since it holds most fossil fuel reserves. However, according to the literature, there’s not enough information about the political conditions that oil-dependent countries should meet to step up to this challenge because most of the academic and scientific research focuses on renewable and demand-side policy. It is imperative to consider the political context in which public policies are constructed. Therefore, this thesis aims to contribute to the gap in knowledge by addressing the dynamics among actors that influence the political conditions of LFFU in oil-producing countries, based on lessons learned from the case of Colombia. According to the chosen political approach, the research design is based in data collection through literature reviews, media selection and semi structure interview and data analysis through Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Edward Freeman and Grants Savage’s Stakeholder theory, methods used to analyze actors and narratives with an emphasis on power dynamics. According to the findings, the political conditions to LFFU can be affected by, a) the complex dynamics between actors that influence political decision-making; b) Radical ideological and narrative differences between political actors. Political will is identify as a major game changer but as insufficient by itself, therefore necessity to create strategies to build relationships and strengthen centrifugal narratives.