Ecuador scraps its Environment Ministry and bets on oil
Rights — di Andrea Barolini
Ecuador's president Noboa has signed an executive decree eliminating six ministries, including the Environment Ministry.
Ecuador scraps its Environment Ministry and bets on oil
Ecuador's president Noboa has signed an executive decree eliminating six ministries, including the Environment Ministry.
It's not just Elon Musk and not just Donald Trump. The excuse of needing to cut costs in order to dismantle climate change policies is becoming increasingly fashionable around the world. Evidence of this can be found in the choices made by the second European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen, whose axis appears to be shifting ever further toward conservative positions. But similar situations are being recorded at the national level in many European countries and beyond. The latest case involves Ecuador.
Six of Ecuador's twenty ministries eliminated, 5,000 people laid off
The South American nation led by president Daniel Noboa, who has never hidden his desire to bet on oil to revive the economy, has carried out a sweeping spending review of the public administration. On 24 July, the head of state signed an executive order (number 60), through which six of the twenty ministries that had until then made up the government of Quito are eliminated. This will result in five thousand redundancies (which will be "immediate", according to an announcement from the presidency itself). All of this, the Ecuadorian executive promises, is "based on efficiency criteria" and aimed at providing "quality public services to citizens".
Ecuador's government is firing 5,000 civil servants and cutting down the number of ministries and related public offices by about 40% bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
While the Latin American state is certainly not the first to carry out certain mergers (for example between the ministries of Education and Culture), some decisions appear surprising. Especially given the sensitivity of certain issues for a nation like Ecuador, which for years has been the setting for environmental and rights-related battles.
Concerns for the environment, the climate and indigenous peoples
Despite this, Noboa has decided to abolish the Ministry of Women and Human Rights, as well as the Ministry of the Environment. The functions of the latter will be merged into the Ministry of Energy. A choice that, according to the non-governmental organisation Amazon Frontlines, "effectively dismantles Ecuador's environmental monitoring system, concentrating power in the very institution that promotes the oil and mining industries, which are central to Noboa's plan to attract foreign investment and restore economic growth".
"These changes represent a profound weakening of public institutions and a serious regression in rights, including those of indigenous peoples. The constitutional guarantees providing for free, prior and informed consent on decisions that affect them, their own self-determination, the right to enjoy ancestral territories and the protection of tribes in voluntary isolation are now more vulnerable than ever," the activist group adds.
The weight of the International Monetary Fund on Quito's decisions
The question, consequently, is: were such choices truly necessary? The reality is that the main pressure on Ecuador comes above all from the International Monetary Fund. On Monday 21 July, a loan of 600 million dollars was approved, in addition to what had previously been granted. In exchange, however, the IMF demands reforms and, above all, draconian austerity. And never mind if the axe falls on rights, the environment and the climate: what matters is balancing the books.
‼️ On July 24, Ecuador's president Daniel Noboa eliminated the Ministry of the Environment, transferring its functions to the Ministry of Energy and Mines: the very institution responsible for promoting oil and mining.
Oil, in short, is certainly an economic lever that the financial institution looks favourably upon. Recently, the reopening of Ecuador's main pipeline, the Sote, as confirmed by the state-owned company Petroecuador, marked the resumption of a daily flow of 360,000 barrels. The nation led by Noboa produced 475,000 barrels per day in 2025, and nearly three quarters were destined for export.
The all-too-simple and short-sighted solution: reviving oil
Consequently, it is only natural that the blockage of the Sote (and of a second pipeline originating in the Amazon) caused an economic shock in Ecuador, with a contraction in production of around 90 per cent. Some experts have estimated losses at around 20 million dollars a day. It is also clear that, when the numbers are examined, reopening the oil taps means restoring a fundamental flow of revenue.
URGENT- on 24 July, @DanielNoboaOk eliminated Ecuador's Ministry of #Environment, Water, and Ecological Transition, transferring its functions to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the institution responsible for promoting oil drilling & mining.
🔗amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/ecu…
🔗amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/ecu…
The problem is that this very flow is harmful to the entire world. And to Ecuador itself: the disasters caused or exacerbated by climate change do not spare South American territory. Just since the beginning of 2025, deaths in the country have reached 52, with a thousand homes destroyed and 61,000 people affected in various ways, according to the Quito authorities themselves.
What Ecuador — and the world as a whole — truly needs is a plan to be able to live on something other than fossil fuels. Otherwise, what is saved in the short term will have to be paid for, at infinitely higher costs, over the long run.