For the first time in history, more than 50 nations have gathered specifically to chart a path away from fossil fuels — a milestone that arrives, with sharp irony, as an energy crisis triggered by conflict reminds the world exactly how exposed it remains to coal, oil, and gas. The two-day conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, on April 28 and 29 brings together environment ministers, climate negotiators, and energy officials in what organizers describe as a new kind of diplomatic space: blunt, producer-inclusive, and free from the consensus gridlock that has stalled UN climate talks.
At a glance
- Fossil fuel phaseout: More than 50 nations are attending the Santa Marta conference, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, covering roughly one-fifth of global fossil fuel production and nearly one-third of consumption.
- Energy security: The gathering comes as the International Energy Agency has described the current supply disruption — tied to Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz — as the biggest oil supply shock ever recorded.
- Climate diplomacy: No binding commitments are expected, but the conference’s recommendations will feed into a voluntary roadmap away from fossil fuels being led by Brazil, the host of COP30.
Why Santa Marta, and why now
The conference was conceived months ago out of frustration with the United Nations climate process, where efforts to negotiate a concrete fossil fuel exit strategy have repeatedly stalled. But its timing has given it an unexpected charge. Wartime fuel shortages, soaring prices, and a global scramble for energy security have made the case for reducing fossil fuel dependence more urgent — and, organizers argue, more obvious — than ever.
Colombia’s environment minister Irene Velez Torres, whose country is co-hosting alongside the Netherlands, said the energy crisis had given the meeting “greater relevance.” She called it a “major step forward” that producer nations were present at all, describing fossil fuel phaseout as a long-standing “taboo” that needed to be confronted directly. “We need to bring all cards to the table,” she said. “Nobody is saying that the way to eliminating fossil fuels is easy.”
Colombia itself is a coal and oil exporter — a fact that has drawn scrutiny but also lends weight to the argument that the conversation needs to include producing nations, not just consuming ones.
Who came — and who didn’t
The attendee list is striking in its range. Major fossil fuel producers Australia, Canada, and Norway are present alongside developing oil exporters Angola, Mexico, and Brazil. Coal-reliant emerging markets Turkey and Vietnam are participating, as are small-island developing states with the most to lose from rising seas, including Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Large European economies Germany, France, and the U.K. round out a group that spans geography, development level, and energy profile.
What the list also reveals, though, is who isn’t there. The world’s four largest fossil fuel producers — the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia — are all absent. That absence limits the immediate reach of any agreement and is the most significant constraint on what Santa Marta can achieve in the short term.
Climate scientist Bill Hare, founder of the Climate Analytics think tank, noted the tension between breadth and sharpness: “The larger the group of countries, the more diffused the interests are and the less chance you’ve got of getting a sharp outcome.”
The road here was long
Nearly 200 countries agreed at COP28 in 2023 to “transition away” from fossil fuels — the first time such language appeared in a UN climate deal. But turning that pledge into action has faced sustained resistance. At COP30 in Brazil in November 2025 C.E., nations couldn’t agree to include even an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final text. The breakdown pushed some governments to look for alternatives to the consensus-based UN process.
Meanwhile, the underlying numbers remain stark. Heat-trapping emissions from burning coal, oil, and gas rose again in 2025 C.E. to a record high, even as clean energy investment now runs at roughly twice the level of fossil fuel investment globally. The gap between political commitment and measurable emissions cuts remains wide.
Maina Talia, climate minister of low-lying Tuvalu, called the Santa Marta conference “long overdue.” Ralph Regenvanu, climate minister of Vanuatu — a Pacific island nation highly reliant on energy imports — said the ongoing crisis was “unequivocally a call to lessen dependence on fossil fuels for everyone.”
What this conference can and can’t do
No binding commitments are expected from Santa Marta. Analysts are careful to frame it as a beginning rather than a breakthrough. Beth Walker, an analyst from the E3G think tank, described it as less a rival to UN talks than a space for motivated nations “to take concrete steps forward.” She added: “This is an important conversation and I think can start to create its own legitimacy and momentum in the long run.”
The conference’s recommendations will feed into a voluntary roadmap being developed under Brazil’s leadership — a document designed to give practical shape to the transition pledge made at COP28. Whether that roadmap gains traction will depend heavily on whether the coalition of willing nations can grow, and whether the absent major producers eventually find reasons to engage.
The path from a first-ever conference to an actual fossil fuel phaseout remains long and genuinely uncertain. But the fact that producer and consumer nations are sitting together — in a room created specifically for this conversation — is itself a shift worth noting.
Read more
For more on this story, see: RTL Today
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- Global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since 1995
- The Good News for Humankind archive on climate change
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