Susana Muhamad
Susana Muhamad | |
|---|---|
 Muhamad in 2024 | |
| Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development | |
| Assumed office August 7, 2022 | |
| President | Gustavo Petro |
| Preceded by | Carlos Eduardo Correa |
| Councilor of Bogotá | |
| In office January 1, 2020 – July 14, 2022 | |
| Secretary of Environment of Bogotá | |
| In office July 2, 2014 – January 1, 2016 | |
| Mayor | Gustavo Petro |
| Preceded by | Néstor García Buitrago |
| Succeeded by | Francisco Cruz Roble |
| In office June 27, 2012 – July 13, 2013 | |
| Mayor | Gustavo Petro |
| Preceded by | Margarita Flórez Alonso |
| Succeeded by | Néstor García Buitrago |
| Secretary General of Bogotá | |
| In office July 30, 2013 – July 2, 2014 | |
| Mayor | Gustavo Petro |
| Preceded by | Orlando Rodríguez |
| Succeeded by | Martha Lucía Zamora |
| Personal details | |
| Born | María Susana Muhamad González November 4, 1976 Political |
María Susana Muhamad González (born in April 21, 1977) is a
Muhamad is a nationally and internationally recognized environmentalist. She was the Former Director for Climate Action Planning for Latin America in C40 director.[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]
Personal life
Muhamad is of Palestinian ancestry.[4] She was born in and hails from Bogotá.[5]
Muhamad has a degree in political science from the Universidad de los Andes, and a Master's in Management and Planning of Sustainable Development from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. She was a sustainable development consultant for Shell Global Solutions International in The Hague, the Netherlands and has supported through activism different environmental causes, as well as worked and collaborated with communities on the ground, non-governmental organizations and human rights movements.[5][6]
Susana Muhamad was an active member and leader of AIESEC, having served as the President of AIESEC in Colombia and as one of the Directors of AIESEC International
Contributions
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.[7] The aim of sustainable development is to balance economic growth with the preservation of natural resources.[7] 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.[7]
Dr. 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.[8] 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.[8] 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.[8]
In the book El agua en la ciudad y los asentamientos urbanos, in the context of water management, it suggests rethinking the water-city relationship in Bogotá to address vulnerabilities caused by development.[9] 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.[9]
Additionally, in Handbook of Strategic Environmental Assessment she discusses the potential of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.[10] 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.[10]
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.
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
On July 5, during the transition from the Duque government to the Petro government, the elected President Gustavo Petro announced the appointment of Muhamad as Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development[11]
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.,[12] she has shown herself as a defender of the escazu agreements, within her agenda as environment minister in conjunction with the president and the congress of congress for the legislation and subsequent implementation of the agreements.[13]
Muhamad has been clear regarding her positions on three of the most important issues on her agenda as environment minister. 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 means of extraction creates irreparable damage to the environment as well as to the atmosphere and water reserves.[14] In June 2023, she made an appearance with Frankie, the activist dinosaur from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), delivered an urgent message to the House of Representatives to address the climate crisis and avoid extinction.[15] 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.[15]
Notes
References
- ^ "Perfil H.C. María Susana Muhamad". March 4, 2022.
- ^ Vega, Lina María (August 5, 2022). "Carolina Corcho, Cecilia López y Susana Muhamad se suman al gabinete de Petro". wradio.com. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
- ^ a b "Twenty-five trailblazing women leading the fight against climate change". Reuters. 2023.
- ^ a b "María Susana Muhamad González". minambiente.gov.co. June 24, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ a b "Susana Muhamad". lasillavacia.com. August 9, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ "Presidente Petro, feliz con la ministra Susana Muhamad por reconocimiento que recibió por su trabajo en la COP27". semana.com. November 22, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-958-5462-87-8.
- ^ a b c Melo Méndez, Carlos; Arévalo, Carlos Riaño (2013-01-01). "Propuesta de redefinición de conceptos básicos asociados a contaminación visual: contaminación visual, paisaje urbano, publicidad exterior visual, publicidad exterior en movimiento, tipología de elementos publicitarios". Ingeniería Ambiental y Sanitaria.
- ^ JSTOR j.ctv1m0kh1s.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-53915-2.
- ^ "Susana Muhamad: este es el perfil de la nueva minAmbiente, designada por Gustavo Petro". semana.com. July 5, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ "Las propuestas de Susana Muhamad, ante la crisis que vive "La Mojana"". confidencialcolombia.com. November 28, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ "Aprobado Acuerdo de Escazú a 63 días de iniciar Gobierno del presidente Petro". minambiente.gov.co. October 10, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ "Triunfo agridulce para el Gobierno: avanzó prohibición del fracking en el Congreso, pero con transición". semana.com. December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ a b "No al fracking en Colombia, mensaje de la Ministra de Ambiente y el dinosaurio Frankie al interrumpir Plenaria en el Congreso". GOV.CO. 2023.
External links
Media related to Susana Muhamad at Wikimedia Commons
