There is deeply disappointing news for all of us who’ve been following the progress of Ecuador’s proposal to leave some 850 million barrels of crude oil beneath the country’s stunning Yasuní National Park. President Rafael Correa seems to have suddenly turned against the initiative, undermining his own negotiating team, denouncing the foreign donors whose support had been painstakingly courted over the last two years, and threatening to drill in June.
The Yasuní initiative seeks international compensation to the tune of $350 million per year to keep the oil in the ground permanently and thereby avoid deforestation and the emission of some 410 million tonnes of CO2.
