By Andreas Malm  / Maxy Guez

Colombia’s energy transition is not just playing out in policy papers — it’s unfolding in oil fields, coal towns, and courtrooms. Jacobin spoke with engineers, unionists, and President Petro himself about trying to realize a post-extractivist economy.

Our taxi stops as close to the presidential palace as possible. We get out and join the queue. We hand our passports to the guards at the first check point. We then have to pass through several security stations, the gravity and solemnity rising with each. At long last, we are inside the halls, close to the innermost sanctum of state power, but we must wait for another hour or two until the time has come — now we also have to give away our phones — and the door to the office is opened and there he is: the president of Colombia.