Colombia and the Netherlands co-hosted the first Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels Conference in the coastal city of Santa Marta in Colombia from April 24–29. Several state leaders praised the conference for its explicit focus on reducing reliance on fossil fuels and supporting a global green transition, particularly as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) annual COP climate conference has been increasingly critiqued for giving a platform to oil and gas lobbyists.
The UNFCCC has held a COP summit almost every year since 1992, with representatives from most countries attending. To agree on joint climate action, a consensus must be achieved among country representatives. However, due to the participation of several oil-producing states, climate progress has often been stifled. While the summits have helped countries agree to transition away from fossil fuels, progress has been limited due to the lack of a timeline or blueprint on how this might be achieved.
During the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, the Colombian government announced plans to host a breakaway conference. The government stressed the importance of establishing a “coalition of the willing” to discuss how to make the green transition tangible.
The organizers of the new conference have been adamant in stating that the conference is not a replacement for the annual COP conference, but is, instead, a gathering that is complementary to COP. The aim is that the conference provides an “innovative, horizontal dialogue that deepens democratic climate governance through meaningful and influential participation by countries and subnational governments, civil society, and other stakeholders.”
According to the leadership, “The objective of the Conference is to initiate a concrete process through which a coalition of committed countries, subnational governments, and relevant stakeholders can identify and advance enabling pathways to implement a progressive transition away from fossil fuels, creating sustainable societies and economies. This process will be informed by the experience and perspectives of national and subnational governments, academia, Indigenous Peoples, Peoples of African Descent, peasants, civil society, workers, the private sector, and other key actors at different stages of the transition.”
The conference brought together governments from 57 countries – representing one-third of the world’s economy – to create practical, accelerated roadmaps for phasing out coal, oil, and gas. The states in attendance included EU member states, the U.K., the COP31 co-hosts – Turkey and Australia, dozens of developing countries, and several oil- and gas-producing states, such as Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Angola, and Canada. China, India, the U.S., Russia, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were all absent from the conference.
Governments were asked to develop national “roadmaps” to demonstrate how they will end the production and use of fossil fuels and shift to greener resources. The voluntary plans will form the blueprint for a new initiative to shift the world away from coal, oil, and gas.
A “science pre-conference” was held ahead of the official conference, attended by 400 global academics, during which a new science panel was established to advise countries on how to develop roadmaps for a green transition. Colombia also published a draft roadmap during the conference. Meanwhile, France became the first developed country to publish a national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels.
Stientje van Veldhoven, the Netherlands’ minister for climate and green growth, stated, “We see the roadmaps as the tool for the ambition with which they came here [to transition away from fossil fuels]. There will be different speeds between countries – we should allow for this and acknowledge that countries start from a different position, have different challenges, so that it cannot be one size fits all.”
Although countries are already required to publish climate plans as part of their Paris agreement commitments, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), they have not previously been required to establish official roadmaps outlining how to tangibly shift away from fossil fuels to renewable alternatives.
During the conclusion of the summit, Tuvalu and Ireland were announced as the co-hosts of next year’s transitioning away from fossil fuels summit, which will take place in the Pacific island nation in 2027. The choice to hold the summit in Tuvalu is noteworthy as it is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with rising sea levels threatening to render it uninhabitable by between 2050 and 2100 unless action is taken to curb the impact of global climate change.
The first Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels Conference was a success, with several state actors leaving the summit with support for developing a roadmap for a green transition, which had not been achieved at previous COP conferences. However, there was much less international coverage of the conference than that of the annual COP summits, and only a limited number of countries attended the conference, suggesting that greater awareness must be raised ahead of the second conference, and more pressure should be put on governments to participate in the summit.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com