Nations to kick off world-first fossil fuel exit talks

More than 50 governments meet in Colombia on Tuesday against the backdrop of the Iran war and a global energy crunch for the first international talks on phasing out planet-heating fossil fuels.

Ministers and climate envoys aim to revive the transition from fossil fuels at the inaugural conference in Santa Marta, one of the country's busiest coal hubs in a nation heavily reliant on energy exports.

The two-day conference bypasses the United Nations climate talks and reflects a growing impatience with its failure to tackle fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming.

"People seem refreshed to be able to talk about these issues without having to sort of argue the existential question of -- do we need to do this at all?" the UK's special climate envoy Rachel Kyte told the AFP news agency in Santa Marta on Monday.

As government delegates arrived Monday, climate activists and Indigenous groups protested against fossil fuels on the streets and beaches of the Caribbean port town where coal tankers dot the ocean horizon.

The conference is not expected to produce binding commitments but a scientific panel has asked governments taking part to consider a halt on new fossil fuel expansion, among other proposals.

On the list of attendees are major fossil fuel producers Canada, Norway and Australia and developing oil giants Nigeria, Angola and Brazil.

They join major energy consuming nations in the European Union, coal-reliant emerging markets Turkey and Vietnam, and small island nation states extremely vulnerable to climate shocks.

The world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – including the United States, China and India – are not attending, nor are oil-rich Gulf states.

'Good faith'

The conference was announced late last year but organisers say the US-Israel attacks on Iran had bolstered the case for a fossil fuel phaseout as nations confronted a sudden shortage of oil and gas.

"Fossil fuels are now clearly to be seen as a source of instability," Kyte told AFP in an interview.

Many nations "are here in good faith to really work through what is a very complex challenge made more urgent by the crisis," she added.

This includes developing nations highly dependent on fossil fuel revenue like Colombia, which is co-hosting the conference with the Netherlands.

Among other agenda items, nations will consider how to equitably reduce fossil fuel production and consumption, and reforming subsidies that throw up barriers to renewable energy investment.

Analysis by the International Institute for Sustainable Development on Monday showed that governments still spent five times more public money on fossil fuels than renewable alternatives.

'Fossil fuel ban'

On Sunday, a scientific panel released a 12-point "menu" of policy options that included "halting all new and expanding fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure projects."

"Without a doubt, there is no justification whatsoever for any new exploration of fossil fuels," the Brazilian scientist Carlos Nobre, a former member of the UN's climate advisory panel, told AFP in Santa Marta.

Even as record amounts of investment flows into renewable energy, scientists warn the pace is still too slow to keep global temperature rises to safer levels.

"Even if we carried out no new exploration, the amount of fossil fuels – oil, coal, and natural gas – that already exists will push temperatures up to two and a half degrees by 2050," Nobre said.

The world has already warmed about 1.4C above pre-industrial times and is tracking to blow past 1.5C in a matter of years.

Above that threshold, scientists warn that coral reefs and Greenland ice sheets could disappear, among other catastrophic and irreversible impacts.

'New power'

Colombia's Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres has been prominent as host of this breakaway climate conference, which has drawn nations wanting to accelerate the fossil fuel phaseout despite the stalemate in the UN-led "COP" summits.

These countries represent "a new power," said Vélez Torres, a former mining and energy minister whose own country is navigating its exit from coal and oil.

AFP interviewed Velez Torres ahead of the high-level talks between ministers and climate envoys on April 28-29 in the Caribbean port town of Santa Marta:

The world's biggest fossil fuel producers are not in Santa Marta. Does their absence threaten the credibility of this event?

"We can look at it the other way around. When the largest emitters have been present at the COP negotiations, they have been the ones who have pushed for a veto to prevent any discussion of the need to transition beyond fossil fuels. Today, it is worth focusing on the more than 50 countries that are here, representing almost 50 percent of the global population, including consumer countries, producer countries and vulnerable countries of the Global South and North. In that sense, we are a new power today."

But wouldn't their absence diminish the authority of any agreement reached in Santa Marta?

"Not at all, because we are not waiting for a joint declaration or new binding agreements between countries. We are waiting for solutions, and these do not necessarily depend on who the biggest emitters are. We hope that at some point they will get on board."

This conference is running parallel to – and outside – the UN climate talks. Does that indicate a growing frustration at the limitations of the annual COP summits?

"Multilateralism is in crisis, but this doesn't mean we should do away with it. On the contrary, we need a multilateralism that is more deeply rooted in the people and not just in governments, biases or economic lobbying. We need new alignments, new alliances."

Is it the end of the road for the COPs?

"The COPs have demonstrated a capacity for dialogue – but also limitations. One limitation relates to how the oil industry lobby has skewed the topics that can or cannot be included in the COPs. Another is the consensus methodology, which has resulted in a de facto veto against countries like Colombia that want more ambitious discussions on decisions particularly related to fossil fuels. And on the other hand, there is a methodological issue that has limited the inclusion of voices from civil society."

What concrete results will this conference produce?

"First, the launch of the first scientific panel dedicated to the energy transition. This panel will be able to advise cities, regions, countries and coalitions on developing "roadmaps" for their own energy transition. We also expect a synthesis of the contributions from governments, civil society, the private sector, unions and the people who are here. This report will be submitted to the COP30 (presidency) and COP31 (presidency) as one input to the global roadmap for moving away from fossil fuels."

Colombia advocates for the clean energy transition but is a major producer of coal and oil. How does President Gustavo Petro's government manage this paradox?

"We've said there will be no new hydrocarbon contracts or expansion of coal mining. With these decisions, we have simultaneously incentivised productive economies based on food production, tourism and industrialisation. The year 2025 showed, for the first time, that there were more exports in terms of remittances and foreign exchange from coffee versus coal. And 2025 was also the first year in which Colombia had more energy from non-conventional renewables, particularly solar, than from coal."