Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Ecuador became an oil exporter in 1972, and for more than 50 years, this product has been the mainstay of its economy. Five decades are enough to prove that Ecuador has not developed by exporting oil. Massive social problems, as poverty, underemployment and inequality persist. Moreover, the oil-producing region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, destroyed by oil activity, is the poorest in the country. A more detailed analysis allows us to highlight the strategic advantages for the country of refraining definitively from oil extraction in the ITT and of moving towards an equitable and sustainable economy, based on the conservation of biodiversity.

Those who defend oil exploitation in the ITT argue that the state will lose 1.2 billion dollars a year if the field is closed, putting the national economy at risk. This figure is a huge exaggeration.

Let’s start by acknowledging that the volume of oil extraction in the ITT is falling rapidly. According to the state-owned Petroecuador, the daily extraction rate is currently estimated at 55,000 barrels, and by 2024 it will only reach 47,000 barrels per day. Since the beginning of oil extraction in the ITT, the average price has been 51 dollars per barrel. With these assumptions, all taken from official sources, and estimating extraction costs at USD 35 per barrel for this field, this results in a fiscal revenue of only USD 275 million by 2024. In 2025, the value will even drop to 216 million, because extraction would already be only 37,000 barrels per day, and then decline rapidly in the following years to 2,000 barrels per day in 2040. This value of 275 million is less than one per cent of the Ecuadorian state budget this year. In addition, however, the huge environmental liabilities Liabilities The part of the balance-sheet that comprises the resources available to a company (equity provided by the partners, provisions for risks and charges, debts). must be subtracted from this meagre income.

We can conclude, then, that the real revenues to be expected are less than a quarter of the figures presented by the advocates of oil extraction. To get an idea, this is equivalent, for example, to what the central government spends on salaries in 9 days. Such a loss can be compensated, even in the short term, quite easily.

It would be enough to combat, for example, tax evasion, which, according to ECLAC, amounts to 7 billion dollars a year. It is also urgent to collect the outstanding debts of the 500 largest debtors with the Internal Revenue System (SRI), which amount to 1,984 million dollars as of 6 June 2023. In other words, there would be enough resources, not only to cover the small difference that would result from not extracting oil from the ITT. Another interesting reference appears when we look at the tax exemptions, incentives and benefits granted annually: in 2021, the latest figure available, the exemptions were 6. 338.6 million dollars - more than double that year’s oil revenues - which certainly benefited large economic groups; if we focus only on individuals, we find that the amount of these exonerations was 714 million dollars, of which the richest 10% of the population obtained a slice of 598 million dollars and the richest 1% of the population 148 million.Other actions will be necessary in terms of a comprehensive ecosocial and intercultural transition. For example, one of the measures to reactivate the economy and make way for the reduction of emissions in the context of climate change is the electrification of public transport, which in 5 years would generate more income than the costs of closing the ITT. Other actions, to cite just a couple from a long list, will have to prioritize activities such as community-based ecotourism and agroecology, based on Ecuador’s greatest wealth: its ecological and cultural diversity.

A key point lies in the enormous biodiversity potential of Yasuní, which could offer enormous income from potential scientific discoveries - especially in the field of medicine - by promoting - through a genuine dialogue of knowledge - an adequate and respectful scientific prospection, simultaneously preventing this knowledge from being exploited by large transnational pharmaceutical companies.

We conclude that oil exploitation in Yasuní is not profitable for the Ecuadorian state in strict cost-benefit terms, even less so if the socio-environmental impacts of extraction are incorporated. It will bring neither employment nor social investment for society, given that, in addition, by law, the income generated by oil goes to the crippling servicing of the foreign debt. More comprehensive studies, based on multi-criteria analysis, also support keeping oil unexploited.

From a serious economic point of view and based on official figures, Ecuador will not sink or go bankrupt if Yasuní’s oil is left in the ground. On the contrary, Ecuador would become a leader in the global fight against climate change, which would even bring a series of additional benefits. We acknowledge the need to work on global economic alternatives based on the recognition of common but differentiated responsibilities for climate change and of ecological debt, of which the countries of the South are the creditors.

Economists of the world say yes to the Yasuní!

If you are an economist and agree, please sign below..

First signatures:

Carlos Larrea, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Equador

Joan Martínez Alier, Universidade Autónoma de Barcelona,
Cataluña

Pierre Salama, professor emérito Universidade de Sorbonne Paris Nord, França

Roldan Muradian, Universidade Federal Fluminense, presidente
da Sociedad Internacional de Economía Ecológica, Brasil

Wilma Salgado, Equador

Enrique Leff, Academia Mexicana de Ciências, México

Anitra Nelson, Universidade de Melbourne, Austrália

Jürgen Schuldt Lange, Universidade del Pacífico, Lima, Peru

Oscar Ugarteche, Investigador da UNAM, México

Clive Spash, Vienna University of Economics & Business, Áustria

Lena Lavinas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Federico Demaria, Universitat de Barcelona, Espanha

Rajeswari Raina, Shiv Nadar University, Índia

Koldo Unceta, Universidade del Pais Vasco, País Basco

Eric Toussaint, Universidades Paris 8 y Liège, Bélgica

Rubén Lo Vuolo, CIEPP, Argentina

Jose De Echave, CooperAccion, Peru

Ian Gough, London School of Economics, Reino Unido

Paula Novo, Universidade de Leeds, Reino Unido

Hugo Jácome, FLACSO, Equador

Salvador Marconi, CEPAL, Equador

Murat Arsel, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Países Baixos

Lorenzo Pelegrini, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Países Baixos

María Cristina Vallejo, FLACSO, Equador

Rohit Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Índia

Carolyn Kagan, Steady State Manchester, Reino Unido

Fander Falconi, FLACSO, Equador

David Barkin, Universidade Autonoma Metropolitana, México

Jorge Marchini, professor na Universidade de Buenos Aires, vice-presidente da Fundación para la Integración Latinoamericana (FILA), coordenador do Grupo de Investigación sobre Integración Regional de CLACSO, Argentina

Omar Maluk, ESPOL, Equador

Wilsón Pérez, FLACSO, Equador

Luciano Martínez, FLACSO, Equador

Marco Romero, Universidade Andina Simón Bolívar, Equador

Julio Oleas, Pontificia Universidade Católica, Equador

Pedro Cango, Universidade Regional Amazónica IKIAM, Equador

Marcelo Varela, Universidade Central del Equador, IAEN, Equador

Salvador Peniche, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Económicas Administrativas, Universidade de Guadalajara, México

Ramiro Chimurris, Universidade de la República Oriental,
Uruguai

Mario Perez, Colômbia

Frederic Hache, Green Finance Observatory, França

Hugo Cabieses Cubas, Peru

Ignasi Puig, Fundació ENT, Catalunha

Maria Azahara Mesa Jurado, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, México

Juanita Mayorga Acosta, Universidade Nacional de Colombia, Colômbia

Raquel Neyra, Gt ecologias políticas desde el sur/Abya Yala Clacso, Peru

Judith Dellheim, SERI Germany, Alemanha

Stefano Forzani, Universidade de Piura, Peru

Lorena Del Carpio Suarez, TierrActiva Perú, Peru

Junior Garcia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brasil

Jorge Enrique Forero, Universidade Andina Simón Bolivar, Equador

Aleida Azamar, Universidade Autónoma Metropolitana, México

Jose Carlos Silva Macher, Pontificia Universidade Católica del Perú, Peru

Andrea Carolina Cardoso Diaz, Universidade del Magdalena, Colômbia

Guillermo Peinado, Universidade Nacional de Rosario, Argentina; presidente da Asociación Argentino Uruguaya de Economía Ecológica, Argentina

Beto Lugo Martínez, CleanAirNow_EJ, Estados Unidos

Carolina Costa de Souza, PUC-SP, Brasil

Varun Sharma, Government of Telangana, Índia

Sujit Sinha, Índia

Caroline Whyte, Feasta, Irlanda

Jesús Ramos, Universidade Autónoma de Barcelona, Espanha

Rahul Basu, The Future We Need, Índia

Nathalie Berta, Université of Reims Champagne Ardenne, França

Xavier Viteri, Universidade Andina Simón Bolivar, Equador

Adriana Merino, Equador

John Willoughby, American University, Washington, DC, Estados Unidos

Daniel Albarracín Sánchez, Cámara de Cuentas de Andalucía, Espanha

João Machado Borges Neto, Pontifícia Universidade de São Paulo (PUC-SP), Brasil

Blanca Tena Estrada, University of Kassel, Espanha

Ernesto Vivares, FLACSO, Equador

Stefan Einsiedel, Center for Social and Development Studies, Munich School of Philosophy, Alemanha

Guillermo Rioja Ballivián, Iniciativa trinacional MAP (Peru, Brasil, Bolívia), Bolívia

Josael Jario Santos Lima, Instituto Ambiental Viramundo, Brasil

Armando Pillado Matheu Herrero, Peru

Fernando Villarán, Universidade Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Peru

Humberto Cordero Galdós, Ministerio del Ambiente, Peru

John De Maesschalck, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Bélgica

Silvana Ramírez, Fundación Ecológica Arco Iris, Equador

Ariel Slipak, Universidade de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Max Lascano, Fundación Paisajes Sostenibles, Equador

Juan Crespo, Universidade del País Vasco, Espanha

Matías Ramos, Univerdad Naciónal de Villa Mercedes, Argentina

Irma Elvira Ganoza Macchiavello, CPM Micaela Bastidas, Peru

Patricia Bermúdez, FLACSO, Equador

Guillermo Burneo Seminario, Comisede, Peru

Francisco Cantamutto, IIESS UNS-CONICET, Argentina

Edelmiro López Iglesias, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Espanha

Eduardo Lucita, EDI. Argentina, Economistas de Izquierda, Argentina

Mariano Féliz, CONICET - UNLP, Argentina

Daniel Ortega Pacheco, Former Minister of Environment, Equador

Mg. Carmen Rosario Tocón Armas, Acción internacional para la Salud, Peru

Rosa Sueiro, ILLA, centro de educación y comunicacion, Peru

Irmi Seidl, University of Zuerich, Suíça

Sam Butler, Estados Unidos

Rubén Flores Agreda Pontificia Universidade Católica del Equador (PUCE), Equador

Manuel Hidalgo Valdivia, assessor sindical, Chile

Luis Terán García, Universidade Nacional de Chimborazo, Equador

Jorge Nawel, Confederación Mapuche de Neuquen, Argentina

Diego Mancheno P, PUCE, Equador

Reginaldo Muniz Barreto, consultoria, Brasil

Luis M. Sirumbal, CEDAL, Peru

Pablo Samaniego Ponce, Pontificia Universidade Católica del Equador, Equador

Juan de la Torre, Universidade Central del Equador, Equador

Dania Quirola-Suàrez, Lund University, International Institute of Industrial Environmental Economics, Equador

Karina Forcinito, Universidade Nacional de Gral Sarmiento, Universidade Nacional de Luján, Universidade de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Noemi Giosa Zuazua, CIEPP, Argentina

Sofia Toledo, UTPL, Equador

María Alejandra Aguirre Armijos, Pontificia Universidade Católica del Equador, Equador
Ricardo Mancero Trujillo, FLACSO Equador, Equador

Adrian Beling, The King’s University (AB, Canada) / FLACSO Argentina, Argentina

Efraín Jaramillo Jaramillo, Colectivo de Trabajo Jenzera, Colômbia

Dan Magallan Soriano, Universidade de Guayaquil, Equador

César Figueroa Vergara, SEDYS Trujillo-Perú, Peru

Sebastian Armendariz Olalla, economista Espanha

Filka Sekulova, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Espanha

Lourdes Beneria, Universidade de Cornell, Espanha

Barbara Harriss-White, Wolfson College, Oxford University, Reino Unido

Evangelia Kouroumichaki, Stimmuli for Social Change, Grécia

Arnim Scheidel, Universidade Autónoma de Barcelona, Espanha

Emilio Padilla Rosa, Universidade Autónoma de Barcelona, Espanha

Patricio Silva, UCE, Equador

Gerardo Aguirrezábal, UNLU, Argentina

Sam Bliss, University of Vermont, EUA

Carlo Zanetti, Universidade de Pádua, Itália

Jon D. Erickson, University of Vermont, EUA

Dan Magallán Soriano, Universidade de Guayaquil, Equador

Luís Enrique Pabón Capacho, Asociación red de recicladores rehobot, Colômbia

Julia Cuadros, CooperAcción, Peru

Leah Temper, CAPE, Canadá

Demián Alejandro García Orfanó Marabunta, Corriente Social y Política, Argentina

Erik Olsen, University of Missouri, Kansas City, EUA

Unai Villalba Eguiluz, Universidad del País Vasco, UPV/EHU, País Basco

Leslie Beloque, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de SP, Brasil

Nina L. Smolyar, University of Vermont, EUA

Francisco Hidalgo Flor, Universidade Central do Equador, Equador

John Cajas Guijarro, Universidade Central do Equador, Equador

Regina Maria d’Aquino Fonseca Gadelha, FEA/PUC-SP, Brasil

Huáscar Salazar Lohman, Centro de Estudios Populares, Bolívia

Dimitra Papavassiliou, N/A, Austrália

Diana La Riva Pronabec, Peru

Bengi Akbulut, Concordia University, Turquia

Carlos Benavente Gòmez, Latindadd, Nicarágua

Luis M. Sirumbal, CEDAL, Peru

Carmen Espinoza, Movimiento Manuela Ramos, Peru

Alberto Acosta, Equador

If you are an economist and agree, please sign below.