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Climate change enters unfamiliar territory this week as 50+ nations gather in Colombia for an unprecedented summit. The First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels launches April 24 in the coastal city of Santa Marta, breaking years of climate negotiation deadlock to confront coal, oil, and gas head-on.
🔥 Quick Facts
- Location: Santa Marta, Colombia, April 24-29, 2026 (high-level segment 28-29)
- Attendance: 50+ countries representing one-third of global fossil-fuel demand and one-fifth of global production
- Scientific mandate: 24 scientists prepared action recommendations including banning new fossil fuel projects immediately
- Historic significance: First-ever global conference dedicated solely to phasing out coal, oil, and natural gas
Why Climate Change Advocates Are Finally Hopeful
UN climate summits have failed to address fossil fuels directly for decades. When nearly 200 countries gathered for COP30 in Brazil last November, fossil fuels vanished from the final agreement entirely. Frustration exploded among developing nations already drowning in climate impacts.
Colombia and the Netherlands rejected that failure. Rather than wait for consensus at paralyzed UN talks, these countries convened their own “coalition of the willing” to design what climate change action actually looks like. Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister and conference president, frames it boldly: “The moment in which history is going to split.”
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Who’s Coming, and Who’s Noticeably Missing
Confirmed attendees include 54 countries spanning the EU, UK, Canada, Australia, Turkey, and developing nations hit hardest by climate change. Major fossil fuel exporters attending include Brazil, Nigeria, Angola, Mexico, and Norway, signaling unprecedented openness to transition paths.
Conspicuously absent: the US, China, India, Russia, and Gulf petrostates. Vélez made this clear: “We are not going to have boycotters or climate denialists at the table.” This “willing” approach replaces gridlocked consensus with momentum among committed nations who rep one-fifth of global fossil fuel production but one-third of demand.
Scientists Are Telling Governments Exactly What to Do
| Action Insight | Key Recommendation |
| Prevent Future Emissions | Ban all new fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure projects |
| Methane Reduction | Implement deep, legally binding cuts in the energy sector |
| Subsidy Reform | Phase out production and consumption subsidies on fossil fuels |
| Public Engagement | Reject natural gas as a “bridge fuel” and mandate transition pathways in national climate pledges |
A rapid-fire team of 24 global scientists spent two months compiling what Carbon Brief obtained exclusively: a preliminary synthesis report offering direct guidance to governments. Unlike IPCC reports, which strictly avoid policy recommendations, Santa Marta’s scientists went further, per Colombia’s request.
“The bulk of policy-related research is very readily deployed to recommendations pointing out what countries could do. This is very liberating”
— Prof Frank Jotzo, Australian National University, Fossil Fuel Transition Scientist
The War That Changed Everything
Last month’s Iran war sent oil prices soaring and exposed fossil fuel dependency‘s fragility worldwide. Suddenly, nations facing energy shortages, food price spikes, and supply-chain collapse recognize the political risk of oil addiction. “Countries are paying the price for oil addiction,” Vélez told the Guardian, “not just in energy bills but in food prices, consumer inflation, shortages.”
Ironically, this crisis authored by fossil fuel geopolitics accelerated climate change action. Yet some nations like Norway, Mexico, and Nigeria are doubling down on extraction, betting energy chaos favors new supply. Santa Marta must convince them otherwise by designing equitable transition pathways backed by global financing.
What Happens After Santa Marta, and Will It Actually Matter?
Don’t expect nations to leave signing treaties to immediately phase out coal and oil. Instead, Santa Marta’s tangible deliverables include financing mechanisms from global south experts, scientific roadmaps, and a menu of solutions to present at COP31 in Turkey this November. A second conference already scheduled for Tuvalu next year shows this is a movement, not a moment.
The real test: whether a coalition of the willing can crack what consensus processes couldn’t, building proof that climate change action accelerates when deadlock-breakers seize control. As Claudio Angelo from Brazil’s Observatório do Clima warned, “The climate crisis is slipping down government priority lists.” Santa Marta must reverse that slide.
Sources
- Carbon Brief – Exclusive reporting on scientist’s preliminary synthesis recommendations for fossil fuel transition
- The Guardian – Interview with Irene Vélez Torres and analysis of Colombia’s coalition strategy
- Fossil Fuel Treaty and UN Partners – Conference details, nation attendance, and organizational framework
