The session "ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility: Public Policy Trends and Impacts" took place in mid-November, in the context of the Latin America & Caribbean Region Energy Opportunities Conference organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), which was co-chaired by Pablo Ferragut, senior project manager of ARPEL, and Miriam Winsten, current president of the AAPG environmental geoscience division and former Global Director of Sustainability and ESG Reporting of Schlumberger.

The speakers of the panel were Mónica Tangarife, Ecopetrol's Social Responsibility and Human Rights Leader; Dave Abeleven, Director of the Suriname Energy Authority, and Alex MacGillivray, Director of Assessments of the UK's CDC Group.

In his presentation, Alex MacGillivray shared the global trends and some of the most remarkable results of COP26. In turn, Abeleven spoke about the challenges that the incorporation of ESG criteria represents for Suriname, a country that has recently made important oil discoveries in its offshore platform, and highlighted the role and effort made in that sense by the national oil company Staatsolie, an ARPEL's member.

Mónica Tangarife presented Ecopetrol's strategy regarding energy transition and sustainability, based on four pillars: competitiveness, diversification, decarbonization and TESG (technology and ESG). She also explained how they had built their sustainability matrix and the international initiatives they follow.

The panel also included a presentation of ARPEL's strategy to support companies in every aspect related to sustainability, highlighting the recently launched document "Roadmap to Boost the Contribution to the SDGs of the Oil and Gas Industry in Latin America and the Caribbean" https://arpel.org/library/publication/531/