Cesar
Provides 90% of Colombia coal (with La Guajira), but Ibirico lost 7,000 jobs and 85% of revenue as prices fell; piloting just transition.
Coal built Cesar's modern economy and coal's decline threatens to unmake it. Together with La Guajira, the department accounts for 90% of Colombia's coal production, with over 35% of departmental GDP coming from extraction. Glencore and other transnational houses run large-scale, export-oriented mines that employ around 30,000 workers directly. But contracting prices have already devastated the town of Ibirico: 7,000 miners lost jobs and municipal revenue shrank 85%.
Cesar also holds one of Colombia's largest cattle inventories. Livestock contributes 70% of agricultural sector output and provides 60% of jobs—though most are informal and 58% of rural land lacks clear property rights. The government has launched pilot just-transition projects, but critics warn that 'replacing one polluting sector with another' merely swaps coal's environmental damage for deforestation-linked ranching. Palm oil offers a third path: Palmas del César pioneered circular economy innovations with a 30,000 sqm bio-compost plant converting biomass to fertilizer.
President Petro has designated five mining districts in Cesar for transition to renewable energy, tourism, and alternative minerals. By 2026, the department will test whether just-transition planning can deliver alternative livelihoods—or whether coal towns become cautionary tales of stranded communities left behind by decarbonization.