Irene Vélez will be the acting Minister of the Environment; she will hold the position without leaving the leadership of ANLA.

The National Government appointed Irene Vélez Torres as the new Minister in charge of Environment and Sustainable Development, following the resignation of Lena Estrada Añokazi. The decision was made official through Decree 0877 of August 5, signed by President Gustavo Petro.

According to the document, Vélez assumes the position as an assigned position "without relinquishing the duties inherent to his position," meaning he will continue to lead the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA) while temporarily leading the ministry.

With this decision, the president opts for one of his closest allies, who was widely criticized during her time in the cabinet and now returns as a "superpower" in the environmental sector.

Vélez Torres served as Minister of Mines and Energy (2022-2023) in the current administration of President Gustavo Petro. She subsequently served as Colombia's Consul General to the United Kingdom (2024-2025). She currently heads ANLA (National Energy Agency), where she has promoted renewable energy projects with a commitment to exceeding the goals set by the National Government, but has seen several projects stalled and amid questions about the delay in issuing licenses.

The new acting minister holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Copenhagen (with a Francisco José de Caldas scholarship), is a Fulbright Scholar, and is categorized as a senior researcher by the Ministry of Science. As a professor at the University of Valle, she worked on issues of political ecology, environmental conflicts related to extractive industries, and environmental health.

She also completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Coimbra and Clemson University, where she researched sociopolitical crises and technologies for detecting hazardous pollutants. "Irene Vélez Torres assumes the position of Director of ANLA, committed to continuing to strengthen the entity's capabilities to ensure environmental management that enables a just energy transition, protecting ecosystems and respecting communities," the agency stated upon her appointment.

The criticism of Vélez began during his first month at the Ministry of Mines and Energy. In September 2022, during the National Mining Congress, he proposed applying the principle of "economic degrowth."

A day later, he had a tense moment with reporters, interrupting a press conference when asked about his thesis on degrowth. "So this ends here. Thank you very much to those who were able to listen," he said at the time.

In January 2023, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, he announced that Colombia would not sign new hydrocarbon exploration contracts or continue open-pit coal mining. This statement generated tensions with the then Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, and the president of Ecopetrol, Felipe Bayón, who defended the need for continued exploration.

A few days later, Deputy Minister of Energy Belizza Ruiz resigned after revealing disagreements with Vélez over a technical report supporting the energy transition policy. Ruiz denounced methodological flaws, inaccuracies, and incorrect data in the ministry's documents. This led to two motions of censure in Congress, both of which Vélez successfully overcame.

Although her profile remained low during her diplomatic work, two scandals once again brought her to the center of controversy. One of them was the omission of her husband, Sjoerd van Grootheest, from his conflict of interest declaration, despite the fact that he had contracts with the Colombia en Paz Fund. Vélez claimed it was a "typing error."

The second scandal was his alleged irregular intervention with Colombian Immigration to allow one of his sons to leave the country without the required permits.

Environment and Health Journalist