\u201cThe transition must be built from the bottom up,\u201d Mauricio Cabrera Leal, Colombia\u2019s vice-minister for the environment, reassures attendees.<\/p>\n
By the afternoon, debates spill into the streets. Under the humid Caribbean heat, to the sound of beating drums and Latin American protest songs, campaigners march across Santa Marta, carrying banners calling for an end to fossil fuels and the economic system that sustains them while chanting slogans denouncing \u201cimperialism\u201d and extractive \u201cneocolonialism\u201d.<\/p>\n
Breaking with traditional diplomacy<\/p>\n
For many participants, the gathering reflects a growing frustration with traditional climate negotiations that have long sidelined those most affected. Alessandra Cardoso from the Brazilian NGO INESC, which monitors fossil fuel subsidies, says the space allows for more open exchanges than at UN climate talks. \u201cThe logic here is different from Cop, which is much more rigid,\u201d she says, meeting at a cafe. \u201cHere we have more room to build something.\u201d<\/p>\n
C\u00e1ssio Carvalho, also from INSEC, pointed to what he describes as a first: workers from the oil, gas, and coal industry came together and presented their own concerns about how the transition stands to dispossess them. Communities now increasingly affected by the green transition must also be part of the debate, the experts say.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a> Lawmakers are also increasingly visible. Rosa G\u00e1lvez, an independent senator from Canada and a member of a global coalition<\/a> of lawmakers for a fossil fuel-free future, says parliamentarians have long been sidelined from climate diplomacy. \u201cOnly until recently have members of parliament had a space at Cops,\u201d she says, noting that lobbyists are often embedded in state delegations while parliamentarians are not.<\/p>\n Juan Carlos Losada, a Colombian MP, says that \u201cthese discussions have been vetoed in UN conferences for too long\u201d. The Santa Marta meeting, he adds, signals the need for a \u201crebellious attitude\u201d, highlighting Petro\u2019s boldness in convening the conference in the aftermath of the Cop30 flop in Bel\u00e9m.<\/p>\n![\"xananine.JPG\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/large.jpeg\"\/ "\\"")
<\/p>\n
\n Ngiwa Indigenous activist Xananine Calvillo Ramirez at a protest in Santa Marta, Colombia, during the first Conference on the Transition away from Fossil Fuels, 27 April 2026. (Geneva Solutions\/Michelle Langrand) <\/p>\n