The shift towards green public procurement in Colombia: environmental protection as a horizontal policy

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to explain the scope of the gradual transformation of Colombian state procurement into an optimal sector for the execution of public policy for environmental protection, based on a qualitative research method of documentary nature. To achieve this purpose, the study is structured in three parts. Firstly, the socio-legal factors that have influenced the shift towards green public procurement are analyzed. Secondly, arguments are provided in favor of the thesis according to which in the current legal system environmental criteria are beginning to play an increasingly relevant role in state contracting, in the pre-contractual, contractual and post-contractual phases. Thirdly, some challenges arising from the inclusion of ecological sustainability parameters in the public procurement system are presented. It is concluded that the consideration of environmental criteria imposes challenges on state entities and other con- tracting subjects such as the efficient management of scientific uncertainty, the rational exercise of administrative discretion and the adequate weighting of the protection of the ecosystem with other postulates that also guide public procurement.