Countries to gather in Colombia for summit aimed at breaking fossil fuel
reliance
[April 24, 2026] By
STEVEN GRATTAN
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Against a backdrop of rising global tensions and
energy market instability, governments from around 50 countries will
gather Friday in Colombia’s Caribbean city of Santa Marta for a summit
aimed at accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels.
The April 24–29 conference, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands,
will bring together ministers, subnational governments, academics and
civil society groups to discuss how to move beyond oil, gas and coal
while ensuring the transition is “just, orderly and equitable,”
organizers said.
The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and
advocates that decades of U.N. climate negotiations have failed to
directly address fossil fuel production — the main driver of global
warming — prompting the Santa Marta summit to push the issue outside
formal talks.
Space for debate, but no binding commitments
Organizers say the gathering is intended to open space for a politically
sensitive debate that has long been avoided in international climate
negotiations.
“It is definitely a political space. We are opening a space for
discussion that does not exist,” Colombia’s environment minister, Irene
Vélez Torres, told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the
summit.
Unlike formal U.N. climate negotiations, the meeting is not expected to
produce binding commitments. Instead, officials say the goal is to
generate a set of proposals and build coalitions of countries willing to
move faster on phasing out fossil fuels.
“We’ve also seen climate action unfortunately fall down the list of
government priorities,” said Claudio Angelo, head of international
policy at the Observatorio do Clima think tank in Brazil.
Nations from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, many of which play
key roles in fossil fuel production or consumption, will attend. The
United States and Saudi Arabia — two of the world’s largest oil
producers — will not, underscoring divisions between countries pushing
for a faster transition and those more closely tied to fossil fuel
interests.
Under the Paris Agreement — the 2015 global climate accord — countries
set their own emissions targets, meaning no international process can
compel governments to phase out fossil fuels.
The summit is part of a broader push to move climate diplomacy beyond
emissions targets and toward directly confronting fossil fuel production
— a politically sensitive issue that has long divided countries.
Some advocates say new approaches are needed to close what they see as a
major gap in global climate policy.
A push for fossil fuel free zones
“Fossil-free zones turn global climate goals into concrete geographic
decisions,” said Andrés Gómez of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative,
referring to proposals to designate areas where oil, gas and coal
extraction would be off-limits, particularly in ecologically sensitive
regions.
Indigenous leaders involved in the process say they are pushing
governments attending the Santa Marta summit to adopt fossil-free zones
as part of their transition plans.
“For Indigenous peoples, stopping fossil fuel extraction is not only a
climate imperative — it is essential to defending our territories, our
governance systems and our right to self-determination,” said Juan
Carlos Jintiach, executive secretary of the Global Alliance of
Territorial Communities, a coalition of Indigenous and local community
organizations representing millions of people across forest regions
worldwide.
He added that governments must move “from commitments to implementation”
by integrating fossil-free zones into national energy transition plans.
Analysis by advocacy groups shows that oil and gas concessions already
overlap with vast areas of tropical forest and Indigenous territories,
underscoring the scale of the challenge.
Geopolitical tensions and energy shocks complicate the transition
The conference comes at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty,
including the war in Iran, which has disrupted global energy markets and
threatened supply through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical route for
roughly a fifth of the world’s oil.
The resulting price spikes are already being felt far beyond energy
markets.
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A ferry crosses Havana Bay past the Nico Lopez oil refinery where
tankers are anchored in Havana Bay, Cuba, March 24, 2026. (AP
Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)
 “Oil prices don’t just stay in
energy markets — they move straight into people’s lives,” said Mary
Robinson, former president of Ireland and a leading climate justice
advocate expected to attend the Santa Marta conference, speaking at
a press conference ahead of the event.
“Impacts are hitting the most vulnerable hardest,
as always, while oil companies reap windfall profits,” she said.
In her interview, Vélez said such instability should accelerate —
rather than delay — the transition.
“The crisis — and let’s call it what it is — the war in the Middle
East has triggered a global crisis,” she said. “In this case, I
believe the movement should be toward radicalizing the green agenda
and the transitions.”
Some analysts warn that supply shocks could push countries to
increase fossil fuel production in the short term, even as they
commit to long-term climate goals — highlighting the tension between
energy security and climate action.
That tension is particularly visible in Latin America, where many
economies rely heavily on oil, gas and mining exports even as
governments position themselves as climate leaders. Colombia, one of
the region’s top oil producers and home to roughly 6% of the Amazon
rainforest, depends on crude exports for a significant share of
government revenue and foreign income.
At the same time, Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s government has
pledged to halt new oil exploration and push for a global phaseout
of fossil fuels.
“Economic and fiscal dependence is a problem, and it is perhaps the
main challenge we face,” Vélez said.
Financial constraints could slow the shift away from fossil fuels
Financial constraints are also expected to shape discussions. Many
developing countries face high levels of public debt and limited
fiscal space, making it difficult to invest in renewable energy and
other elements of the transition.
Civil society groups say that without reforms to the global
financial system, these constraints will continue to slow progress.
“Moving away from fossil fuels requires, without a doubt, a careful
economic and energy transition plan,” said Carola Mejía of the Latin
American and Caribbean Network for Economic, Social and Climate
Justice.
Gabriella Bianchini of Global Witness said the stakes go beyond
climate alone.
“As people everywhere suffer the consequences of oil-driven
conflict, it’s never been clearer that the world needs to leave the
fossil fuel era behind,” she said. “Santa Marta is a chance for
governments and communities to grab the bull by the horns and take
action toward a greener, more equitable and peaceful world.”
She added that while U.N. climate talks remain crucial, they have
repeatedly struggled to deliver meaningful progress on fossil fuels.
“Santa Marta represents space for governments to work on the one
plan we know will stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown:
a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels,” Bianchini said.
Observers say a key question will be whether the meeting can produce
a clearer political signal on an issue that has remained largely
unresolved in global climate talks.
“If we think about it, the conference is that turning point where,
collectively, we decide to be on the right side of history,”
environment minister Vélez said.
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