{"id":3568,"date":"2026-03-09T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/?p=3568"},"modified":"2026-04-15T09:27:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:27:37","slug":"new-summit-in-colombia-seeks-to-revive-stalled-un-talks-on-fossil-fuel-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/?p=3568","title":{"rendered":"New summit in Colombia seeks to revive stalled UN talks on fossil fuel transition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A landmark conference hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands will aim to lay the foundations for renewed talks on transitioning away from fossil fuels at COP31, though organisers say it remains unclear what concrete outcomes it will deliver.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The First Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels will take place in April in the city of Santa Marta, on Colombia\u2019s Caribbean coast, where first-moving countries, states and cities will seek to restart last year\u2019s stalled push for a global roadmap away from coal, oil and gas.<\/p>\n

Bastiaan Hassing, head of international climate policy for the Dutch government, told an online briefing last week that the \u201cmost obvious\u201d impact of the conference would be for its hosts to report back to the UN climate summit on what was agreed in Santa Marta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIdeally, but this is also more complicated, we discuss with each other (at COP) what next steps we could take in the implementation, for instance, of paragraph 28 of the COP decision in Dubai, which talks about the global transition away from fossil fuels,\u201d Hassing said.<\/p>\n

He noted that there are many options for how the conference can influence UN talks on implementing the global transition away from fossil fuels, but the exact possibilities would depend on the outcome of the gathering. \u201cRest assured that we will be looking into this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s COP30, a bloc of 80 countries<\/a>, including small island states, as well as some Latin American, European, and African countries, called for the creation of a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

But major oil and gas producers and consumers blocked the initiative in Bel\u00e9m. As a compromise, Brazil\u2019s COP presidency promised to draft proposals for two voluntary roadmaps: one to end deforestation and another to guide the transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Brazil has launched consultations<\/a> seeking input for those plans, asking governments and stakeholders about technological and economic barriers, climate justice considerations and examples of best practice. Last week, COP30 president Andr\u00e9 Corr\u00eaa do Lago told Brazilian media <\/a>that he would hold discussions on his roadmap proposal at the Santa Marta conference.<\/p>\n

Colombia\u2019s environment minister Irene V\u00e9lez Torres told reporters last week that \u201cthis is the moment to be honest about the challenges involved in transitioning away from fossil fuels\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not easy. It involves commitments from both the Global North and South. It involves interests and tensions at the subnational level,\u201d she added. \u201cYet none of this diminishes its urgency or the need to reach agreements at the international multilateral level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Process to end fossil fuels<\/h2>\n

V\u00e9lez Torres said she hoped the Santa Marta meeting would help establish an ongoing process to advance discussions that often stall in the formal UN negotiations, where decisions are made by consensus and fossil fuel producers resist stronger language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first conference, and we want it to be followed by another. We also want to establish a technical secretariat to sustain these debates,\u201d said V\u00e9lez Torres, who added that the initiative would be \u201carticulated with [the] COP30 and COP31\u201d presidencies.<\/p>\n

Colombia has been one of the few fossil fuel-producing countries that pledged to halt all new coal, oil and gas exploration<\/a>. The move triggered backlash from industry and political opponents \u2013 with former president Iv\u00e1n Duque calling <\/a>the decision \u201cpolitical and economic suicide\u201d. The South American country depends on fossil fuels for about 10%<\/a> of fiscal revenues and 4% of GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).<\/p>\n

Organisers of the Santa Marta conference said they expect between 40 and 80 high-level representatives from governments, both at national and subnational levels. Colombian president Gustavo Petro is expected to participate, and invitations have been extended to California governor Gavin Newsom and Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten.<\/p>\n

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No turning back<\/h2>\n

The conference comes amid renewed volatility in global energy markets. As the US and Israel\u2019s war in Iran disrupts oil and gas supplies and threatens to cause severe global economic damage, analysts say<\/a> governments should seek to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels through investments in renewables and energy efficiency.<\/p>\n

The upcoming Santa Marta conference should build momentum to plan that transition away from fossil fuels and signal that \u201cthere is no turning back\u201d, said Peter Newell, professor of international relations at the University of Sussex and one of the main proponents of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts outcomes, which might include a declaration on key principles and next steps (for the fossil fuel transition), should give renewed vigour to efforts within the UN climate negotiations to drive the agenda forward,\u201d Newell said.<\/p>\n

Because major fossil fuel producers have effectively \u201cvetoed\u201d discussions on a fossil fuel phase-out at COPs, he added, willing countries must move forward independently with initiatives like the Santa Marta conference.<\/p>\n

Andreas Sieber, head of political strategy at the NGO 350.org, agreed that the push away from fossil fuels is \u201cboth necessary and economically inevitable\u201d, adding that a conference on phasing out fossil fuels would have been \u201cunthinkable just five years ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Countries moving forward<\/h2>\n

COP30 host Brazil has taken the lead in developing its own national roadmap away from fossil fuels, which President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva requested his government to draft late last year. The roadmap is expected to be formally developed this year.<\/p>\n

The plan \u2013 expected to include a dedicated energy transition fund \u2013 was initially due in February but has not yet been made public as ministers continue technical discussions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Europe, governments have also stepped up efforts to curb fossil fuel use following the energy shocks triggered by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Leo Roberts, a fossil fuel transition analyst at the climate think tank E3G, said the recent surge in gas prices linked to the Iran conflict reinforces the case for accelerating the transition to boost energy security and protecting people from price shocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, Santa Marta is able to really demonstrate that not only is there momentum at the international sphere through the COP30 roadmap process, but there\u2019s huge momentum away from fossil fuels in the real world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A landmark conference hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands will aim to lay the foundations for renewed talks on transitioning away from fossil fuels at COP31, though organisers say it remains unclear what concrete outcomes it will deliver. The First Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels will take place in April in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[685,686],"class_list":["post-3568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news","tag-colombia","tag-fossil-fuel-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3570,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3568\/revisions\/3570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatevdo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}