{"id":937325,"date":"2026-05-04T15:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/937325\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:02:16","slug":"monday-briefing-will-a-new-alliance-of-nations-be-able-to-guide-the-world-towards-a-post-fossil-fuel-future-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/937325\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday briefing: \u200bWill a new alliance of nations be able to guide the world towards a post-fossil fuel future? | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. The cost of fossil fuels is threatening to strangle the global economy once again. Last week, oil prices surged after the US president, Donald Trump<\/a>, warned that a blockade of Iranian ports could last months \u2013 causing the price of oil to jump to its highest level since Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. With it, the spectre of global recession looms large.<\/p>\n

But on the Atlantic coast in Colombia last week, a coalition of the willing was working to break the cycle. Almost 60 governments met in Santa Marta for the world\u2019s first conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels. At the conference, each country agreed to develop roadmaps on how to move away from fossil fuel dependency.<\/p>\n

For today\u2019s First Edition, I spoke with the Guardian\u2019s environment editor Fiona Harvey<\/strong>, who was in Colombia for the summit, about whether the war <\/strong>in Iran has inadvertently given renewable energy a major boost. But first, the headlines.<\/p>\n

Five big stories<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    AI <\/strong>| The biometrics commissioner for England and Wales has warned<\/a> that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals is lagging far behind the technology\u2019s rapid growth.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    UK politics <\/strong>| Labour\u2019s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has warned there will be \u201cno magic bullet\u201d<\/a> to solve Labour\u2019s problems or major challenges facing the country as its MPs grapple with how to navigate the fallout from the local elections.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    Iran <\/strong>| Donald Trump has announced that the US will \u201cguide\u201d ships trapped by the Iran war out of the Gulf through the strait of Hormuz<\/a> on Monday morning, and claimed his representatives were having \u201cvery positive\u201d discussions with Iran.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    Europe <\/strong>| Canada is to become the first non-European country<\/a> to attend a meeting of the European Political Community when the prime minister, Mark Carney, joins today\u2019s summit in Armenia.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    Israel <\/strong>| Spain\u2019s foreign ministry has demanded the immediate release<\/a> of a Spanish national it said was being \u201cheld illegally\u201d by Israel after the interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In depth: An immense irony seems to be unfoldingAnalysis shows a UK fully powered by renewable energy, with electricity coming from clean sources could save households up to \u00a3441 a year on bills. Photograph: Jane Barlow\/PA<\/p>\n

    Amid Donald Trump\u2019s second presidency, the climate crisis has largely disappeared from the global agenda. A coordinated attack on the green movement by his administration has seen the US government leave the Paris agreement once again; withdraw from the UN convention of climate change; defund a swathe of projects around the world helping to improve resilience and adaptation; and demand others follow their example. At the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG) spring meetings, the US did all it could to stop countries even mentioning climate change.<\/p>\n

    But the US is starting to seem out of step globally. As the UN\u2019s climate chief Simon Stiell<\/a> pointed out on Thursday, an \u201cimmense irony is unfolding\u201d as a result of the war in Iran: the rocketing price of oil driven by US-Israeli attacks on Iran has supercharged the boom in renewable power. Governments, businesses and households around the world are looking to solar power and wind to escape the biting cost of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

    While oil and gas companies, particularly those based in the US, may enjoy bumper short-term profits<\/a>, the genie is already out of the bottle. Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told the Guardian<\/a> that the war has changed the fossil fuel industry forever, shattering its image of reliability, and boosting nuclear power and renewables. The world will need and use fossil fuels still, but countries seem to be losing trust.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe vase is broken, the damage is done \u2013 it will be very difficult to put the pieces back together. This will have permanent consequences for the global energy markets for years to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    A roadmap for action<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The immense irony is not lost on those who wish to see more action on climate.<\/p>\n

    The summit in Colombia, which was organised jointly with the Netherlands, <\/strong>arouse out of an immense frustration with the UN climate process. It has caveats, being voluntary, and lacking attendance from most of the world\u2019s biggest emitters. But during what feels like a historic political low for the climate movement, the conference maintains momentum on efforts to avert extreme temperature rises, says Fiona.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThis summit is not going to solve the problems of the world, or replace the official UN climate process, but in its own way, it can help solve some of the current problems in the climate movement. You need to get buy-in from countries who want action on this issue. They also need to find a way to communicate with governments who do not, which are largely autocracies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

    In the end, 59 countries participated in the talks, representing more than half of global GDP, nearly a third of energy demand and a fifth of fossil fuel supply. But one country in particular loomed large over the talks.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe have never seen a United States government like this before,\u201d Fiona tells me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u201cWhen I first started writing about the climate, George W Bush was in charge and he wasn\u2019t keen on the climate. But he didn\u2019t go around saying things to the tune of we\u2019re going to smash up renewables, halt investment in them, and say that climate change is a hoax.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt\u2019s a very different landscape with Trump in charge \u2013 and Santa Marta is an expression of how countries are responding to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Petrostates versus electrostates<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The Trump administration\u2019s rejection of action on the climate and the energy transition has opened up a technological fissure. On one side, there is the US which has full energy independence with fossil fuels and under Trump, wishes to continue using the technologies that have dominated the last century. On the other, there is China which is on its way to becoming the world\u2019s first electrostate, dominating the production of solar panels, wind turbines, affordable electric cars and the supply chains needed to produce them.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe petrostate v electrostate division has been an issue for the last year or so. The idea is that you\u2019re either hooked on oil, gas and coal, or you move to an electrified future. The discourse has been precipitated by Donald Trump as he has made things very stark,\u201d Fiona says. \u201cWe always knew that electrification was the only way to get out of the climate conundrum. It\u2019s much easier to get off fossil fuels if you electrify everything first.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Many governments are wary about their potential dependence on China if they make this transition, with European governments in particular looking to ensure that they are not entirely reliant on Beijing to make the energy transition. They will need to walk a tightrope between the US and China moving forwards.<\/p>\n

    Concrete solutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

    As government representatives departed the Colombian Atlantic coast, many left with a hint of optimism<\/a> for the first time in years. Momentum was already hard to find in official UN climate talks before Trump returned to the presidency, but enough was achieved for this coalition of the willing, which agreed to meet annually alongside Indigenous leaders, scientists and other experts.<\/p>\n

    Despite the overwhelming weight of <\/strong>scientific evidence that humans are driving global heating due to the consumption of fossil fuels, the official UN climate process still struggles to agree on this simple fact. Now, a significant minority have \u2013 and it is up to them to build the world of tomorrow.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe decided not to resign ourselves to an economy built on the destruction of life,\u201d said Irene V\u00e9lez Torres<\/a>, Colombia\u2019s environment minister and chair of the talks. \u201cWe decided that the transition away from fossil fuels could no longer remain a slogan but must become a concrete, political and collective endeavour.\u201d<\/p>\n

    What else we\u2019ve been readingMichelle and Lavinia Osbourne are twins who have different fathers due to an incredibly rare phenomenon known as heteropaternal superfecundation. Photograph: Alice Mann\/The Guardian<\/p>\n