Around 60 nations are gathering in Santa Marta, Colombia, on Friday in what is described as the first global effort to plan a complete move away from fossil fuels, marking a significant step forward as climate impacts intensify and multilateral progress stalls. The countries attending account for roughly a fifth of global fossil fuel supply, including Colombia, Australia and Nigeria, though major powers including the US, China and India are not part of the talks.
Breaking Through Gridlock
The meeting comes as the world warms rapidly, mainly from the use of coal, oil and gas, and as progress at the annual UN COP climate meetings has slowed because decisions depend on the consent of all, giving large fossil producers an effective veto. At COP30, held in Brazil less than one year ago, efforts to agree a roadmap away from fossil fuels failed because major oil producing nations would not agree to the plan. Delegates say the new meeting in Colombia is not meant to replace the COP process, but to complement it.
Scientists say the chance to keep warming to safer levels and avoid the most damaging impacts is slipping away, and that once warming passes 1.5C, dangerous impacts become more likely and harder to reverse. Prof Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told BBC News, "We are inevitably going to crash through the 1.5C limit within the next three to five years." He also said, "Breaking through 1.5C means we enter a far more dangerous world - with more frequent and intense droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves - and we are already approaching critical tipping points in major Earth systems."
Pushback and Uncertainty
The meeting is taking place as events beyond the climate sphere are reshaping the debate over fossil energy. The US, the world's largest economy, has pushed back strongly in favour of coal, oil and gas under President Trump, while many other countries are said to be sitting on the fence about the scale and speed of their move away from fossil energy. Participants at the Santa Marta meeting believe the purpose of the gathering is to show countries that are hesitating about the transition that there is a critical mass moving in favour of renewables.
UK Climate Envoy Rachel Kyte, who is attending the gathering, said, "We are committed to working with other countries to support those wishing to drive forward their transitions to clean and secure energy." She also said, "We have the experience of our transition to share and the recent experience of driving to energy security with our clean power mission."
Energy Security Returns to Focus
Conflict in the Middle East has pushed up oil prices in recent weeks, highlighting the risks of dependence on fossil fuels and bringing questions of energy security back into focus. Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who is attending the meeting as a founding member of The Elders group of former world leaders, said, "This is exactly why this conference matters now." She also said, "The urgency is multiplied. What's happening has worsened the fossil fuel crisis we're already in."
The dramatic events in the Straits of Hormuz and elsewhere are affecting the choices people are making about energy consumption. Prof Rockström said, "I've just stepped off an advisory board meeting with Mercedes-Benz, and they expressed what's happening as a success - a sharp rise in demand for electric vehicles in Europe." He added, "People are recognising they want energy independence - they don't want to be in the hands of a volatile oil and gas market."
Building a Coalition
Katerine Petersen from think tank E3G, who is attending the meeting, said, "Ultimately you don't need all countries to drive global progress. You need a starting point." She added, "Then you need a coalition that can expand over time and show how it can and will be useful. And I think that's what we're expecting to see from Santa Marta."
The organisers stress that the meeting is not an alternative to COP, but they see it as playing a key role in reviving that process. Some of the leaders of the Brazilian COP will be in attendance in Santa Marta, and the main conclusions agreed there will become part of Brazil's roadmap away from fossil fuels, which the country has said it will publish before COP31 in Turkey in November.
Why This Matters:
As scientists warn that the 1.5C warming threshold will be breached within three to five years, triggering more frequent droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves that disproportionately harm vulnerable communities, this gathering represents an effort to circumvent the gridlock that has paralyzed global climate action. The veto power of major fossil fuel producers at COP meetings has effectively blocked progress on phasing out the energy sources driving climate breakdown, leaving populations worldwide exposed to mounting dangers. Recent oil price spikes driven by Middle East conflict underscore how fossil fuel dependence creates economic vulnerability alongside environmental harm. By demonstrating that a critical coalition can move forward on clean energy transitions, these 60 nations are creating a framework that could expand to protect more communities from both climate impacts and energy insecurity, while offering a pathway for countries still hesitating on the transition.