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Just across the road from the site of the first international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, in Colombia, oil tankers routinely unload at the Pozos Colorados terminal, with its large tank farm.
The tension between climate ambition and fossil-fuel dependency is at the heart of the meeting, which began Friday in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta. It has drawn more than 50 countries — from oil producers such as Nigeria to big consumers such as Germany, plus the European Union — in a bid to break the stalemate of United Nations climate talks.
The gathering reflects mounting impatience with the slow pace of global negotiations. Countries first agreed at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 to “transition away from fossil fuels,” but made little progress on it. At last year’s COP30 in Brazil, about 80 countries backed a road map to phase out oil, gas and coal, but it was dropped from the final document for lack of consensus, angering many delegates.
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That frustration helped spur Colombia and the Netherlands to gather this “coalition of the willing” in Santa Marta. The effort has gained momentum in recent weeks as the Iran war disrupts energy markets and highlights the risk of continued reliance on carbon fuels.
“Countries are going into Santa Marta with the energy crisis at the top of most of their minds. They have a visceral reminder of just how volatile, unpredictable, and unstable it is to rely on fossil fuels,” said Natalie Jones, senior policy advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a think tank.
“We need to shift now from the overarching objective of transitioning away from fossil fuels to actually how we go about it,” said David Waskow of the World Resources Institute, describing Santa Marta as taking “initial steps” on the practical challenges.
One important step, Waskow said, is a global road map. Brazil’s COP30 presidency has proposed one and is expected to deliver it at COP31 in Turkey in November. The Santa Marta conference aims to discuss how national and international road maps can be developed. Brazilian delegates told negotiators gathered in Berlin this week for a separate pre-COP meeting that they aim to produce a plan in time for the U.N. General Assembly in September, according to people familiar.
Decision-making will be less formal than in U.N. climate talks, using a participatory process involving governments, scientists and civil society that informs a high-level segment. The meeting’s outcomes will be consolidated into a final report rather than a binding agreement.
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