{"id":461898,"date":"2026-04-30T18:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/461898\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:45:11","slug":"ireland-to-co-host-next-fossil-fuel-phase-out-conference-in-south-pacific-island-tuvalu-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/461898\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland to co-host next fossil fuel phase-out conference in South Pacific island Tuvalu \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland has been announced as co-host for next year\u2019s sequel to the world\u2019s first Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The announcement came at the conclusion of the inaugural conference held in Santa Marta, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/colombia\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/colombia\/\">Colombia<\/a>, over the past week. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland will co-host with Tuvalu, one of the collections of low-lying small islands in the South Pacific at risk of disappearing as sea levels rise. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The venue for the conference has not yet been confirmed but Tuvalu has said it wants to host the physical gathering, despite having a population of just 11,000 and limited infrastructure for an international event. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Minister for Climate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/darragh-obrien\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/darragh-obrien\/\">Darragh O\u2019Brien<\/a> welcomed the decision to hand over to Ireland and Tuvalu after Colombia and the Netherlands were the first co-hosts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIreland is committed to the transition away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cUltimately, the transition will secure sustainable, affordable and secure energy for our citizens and our businesses, while protecting the planet from the worst impacts of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/environment\/climate-crisis\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/environment\/climate-crisis\/\">climate crisis<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI am heartened with the progress that has been made this week in Santa Marta, but this is only a first step. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThat is why I am delighted to announce that Ireland will be partnering with Tuvalu to co-host the second Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, in Tuvalu, in 2027.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/environment\/2026\/04\/30\/plastics-and-fossil-fuels-are-two-sides-of-the-same-disastrous-coin\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Plastics and fossil fuels are two sides of the same disastrous coinOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The conference ended with agreement by the 60 countries attending to draw up national roadmaps setting how they will each wean their own societies and economies off oil, gas and coal. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The initiative grew from frustration with the annual United Nations climate summits or Cops, where all agreements must be unanimous, and the main fossil fuel producing and fossil fuel dependent countries repeatedly block progress. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Climate justice campaigners welcomed the agreement in Santa Marta as a valuable first step in ending fossil fuels. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">ActionAid Ireland said the Government must not let the momentum slide and should begin work on a national plan to phase out fossil fuels straight away. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">About  83 per cent of Ireland\u2019s energy \u2013 for transport, heating and electricity generation \u2013 still comes from oil and gas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe conference was a watershed moment in which the collective mind became truly focused on the common cause of ending the fossil fuel era,\u201d said ActionAid Ireland chief executive Karol Balfe. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland was one of the original group of 24 countries to sign up to the initiative to have a \u201ctransition away\u201d movement in parallel  with the annual Cops. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Successive governments have also supported IrishAid to work closely with the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) in advocating for climate finance and assistance for small nations most at risk from climate change. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Tuvalu is one of the most active of the 39 Aosis member states. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland has been announced as co-host for next year\u2019s sequel to the world\u2019s first Conference on Transitioning Away&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[442,11989,2914,18,440,19,17,9951,133,2863],"class_list":{"0":"post-461898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-colombia","10":"tag-darragh-o-brien","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-oil","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-united-nations-un"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116495143729876746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}