Nations move fossil fuel debate from pledges to strategies in Colombia
The world's first conference on phasing out fossil fuels has ended in Colombia with delegates from 56 countries declaring that the global debate has shifted from whether to stop using oil, gas and coal to how to do it. Debt and financing remain major obstacles.
Participants gathered for several days in Santa Marta, a coal port on Colombia's Caribbean coast, for talks focused directly on winding down fossil fuel production rather than only cutting emissions.
While the meeting produced no binding commitments by the time it wrapped up on Wednesday, it launched working groups on financing and labour transitions, plans for continued cooperation and momentum toward future negotiations.
"Cops are more formal, negotiators have their lines and they will not cross them – it's so different here," said former Irish president Mary Robinson, now a climate justice advocate, referring to UN climate conferences.
Participants "have felt more human together", she said.
Debt and limited resources were among the biggest barriers for developing countries.
"Many of them are in bad need of debt relief to even begin a transition," Robinson told the conference. Those countries are "trapped in debt".
Colombia conference aims for 'more honest conversation' to speed fossil fuel exit
Who pays?
Financing emerged as the biggest immediate challenge, with developing countries facing high borrowing costs and limited access to money.
"The financing is key, this is an investment issue," said Nick Robins, senior director for finance and private sector at the World Resources Institute.
Debt pressure is also pushing some countries deeper into fossil fuel expansion.
"What we're hearing is that they would like to stop expanding fossil fuel production, but they're being forced into new oil and gas and coal projects just to feed their debt," said Tzeporah Berman, founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.
"This conference is actually the first time in 30 years of climate negotiations where countries are gathering to talk about how to ensure a fossil fuel phase-out."
The financing challenge was also central to talks ahead of last year's Cop30 in Brazil, where fiscal pressures were repeatedly raised as a major obstacle.
"We need for finance ministers to help us on finding solutions on how to deal with the fiscal challenges of transition," Ana Toni, Cop30 chief executive, told the conference.
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Roadmaps and bans
France drew attention on the conference's opening day by publishing what it called a roadmap to eliminate fossil fuel use for energy by 2050, though some participants noted it largely repackaged existing pledges.
A new Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition was also launched to help governments, cities and regions design pathways away from fossil fuels.
"It will provide all the solutions – to implement them, and to finance them," Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre told the French news agency AFP.
Colombia banned fossil fuel and mineral extraction in its Amazon region last year "to stop the expansion of the extractive frontier", said Colombia's Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres.
Tuvalu, one of the countries most threatened by rising sea levels, will host the next conference in 2027 with Ireland as co-host.
"If we are to address the climate change issue, we have to address the root cause, and the root cause is the fossil fuel industry," Tuvalu Climate Minister Maina Talia told the Associated Press.
"We don't want just a free and flexible outcome. We want something concrete. We want steps, solutions on the table."
(with newswires)