Susana Muhamad is the current minister of environment and sustainable development of Colombia, serving since August 2022. A Colombian politician with Palestinian roots, Muhamad has worked extensively on issues of environmentalism, aiming to consolidate Colombia as a world power of life, through compliance with international agreements on climate change and loss of biodiversity, protection of environmental defenders and the fight against deforestation in the Amazon region. She was recognized as one of Reuters’ 25 most influential women leading the fight against climate change and is playing a leading role in addressing Colombia’s most pressing environmental issues and their economic and security implications. 

Her governmental experience includes her appointment as secretary of the environment in 2012, during Gustavo Petro’s period as mayor of Bogotá. A year later, she became secretary general of the mayor’s office. In 2019, she was elected councilor of Bogotá, a position she held until the first half of 2022. In 2021, Muhamad was elected vice president of the national coordination board for the political party Colombia Humana. Additionally, she has worked as a sustainable development consultant for Shell Global Solutions International in The Hague.  

Muhamad holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Universidad de los Andes and a master’s degree in planning & management of sustainable development from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. 

Muhamad was an event speaker at the Dialogue.