Ecuador, the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, and the Rights of Mother Nature. Alberto Acosta

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This episode of The Green Interview features Alberto Acosta, an Ecuadorian economist and the country's former minister of energy and mining. Acosta was also the driving force behind the groundbreaking Yasuní-ITT Initiative, an offer by Ecuador to fight climate change by forgoing oil exploration and production in a large tract of untouched rainforest. Acosta is also the ex-president of the Constituent Assembly charged with drawing up the now famous Montecristi Constitution, which took effect in 2008 and established protection for the rights of nature. Acosta ran unsuccessfully against Rafael Correa for president in 2013-one of 8 presidential candidates-and is currently a researcher at FLASCO-Ecuador (Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences) and a vocal critic of Correa.