LatinNews Daily - 19 April 2024

*Colombia’s ministers for mining & energy, Andrés Camacho, and the environment, Susana Muhamad, have announced 15 measures to address energy shortages stemming from the drought caused by the impact of the El Niño weather phenomenon, which is also affecting neighbouring Ecuador. The measures include: efforts to strengthen actions to inspect and monitor activities in all aspects of the national energy system; new rules to incentivise energy production; consideration by the energy & gas regulator (CREG) of other regulatory measures to improve the efficiency of the energy system and incentivise the saving of energy, among other things. For now, the government has ruled out energy rationing. President Gustavo Petro also called for today (19 April) to be a ‘civic day’, or a public holiday in order to save water and energy. Colombia’s XM Compañía Expertos en Mercados, a subsidiary of Colombian state transmission company Interconexión Eléctrica (ISA), warned earlier this month that water reservoirs are currently standing at 31% of capacity.