Currently, 50 countries – including Canada – are talking about how to phase out fossil fuels
High-level talks to speed up fossil fuel displacement began Tuesday in the Colombian city of Santa Marta, Caribbean, where President Gustavo Petro warned that the world could “reach a point of no return” without the Amazon’s role in climate control.
The two-day meeting of ministers and senior officials marks the political backdrop for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, where more than 50 countries, including Canada, are discussing how to move away from oil, gas and coal – the main drivers of global warming – to clean energy.
“The conclusion is unavoidable: we must transition away from fossil fuels – not only because they are good for the climate, but because they strengthen our independence and security,” said Stientje van Veldhoven, the Netherlands’ minister for climate policy and green growth. The Netherlands held a joint meeting with Colombia.
The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and advocates that decades of UN climate talks have failed to directly address fossil fuel production, prompting the Santa Marta summit to address the issue without formal negotiations.
But the latest roads to use the end of fossil fuels – including a draft last week from Colombia and yesterday from France – breathe hope that this is not just talk.
“There’s a really interesting energy in the room,” said Liz McDowell, senior campaigns director with the environmental group Stand Earth.
“Starting to see those real signs – countries saying ‘OK, we’re here and we’re doing a program’ – it’s really exciting.”
Many countries are meeting in Colombia for the first conference focused entirely on transitioning away from fossil fuels. Canada is sending delegates to the talks but is also a major oil and gas producer who will be at the table.
Canada’s double role
Recent talks have acknowledged the need for change, but countries are still divided on how to implement it and how to finance the change.
Canada is the largest oil and gas producer in terms of representation at the conference. McDowell says attendance is good, but more needs to be done to show greater commitment.
“There is a strong tension between them [being here] and our current domestic policies,” McDowell told CBC News from Santa Marta.
Last week, Canada announced the authorization to increase liquefied natural gas, a private economic fund – among other things that could help oil and gas projects of national interest – and its next budget looks to be reduced by high oil prices driven by the war in Iran.
“The devil is in the details,” warns José Bravo, executive director of the Just Transition Alliance, a civil society organization. He worries that short-term solutions to get rid of fossil fuels can hide many environmental problems, such as increasing nuclear power and its impact on other communities.
“I understand wholeheartedly and I’ve been to Navajo communities and I’ve seen hundreds of open-pit uranium mines, and uranium residue all over the place,” Bravo explained.
“And it’s not the clean energy that a lot of people say it is.”
Colombia’s president warns Amazon at the right time
Speaking this afternoon, Petro warned that “the Amazon rainforest is burning,” adding that “without it we are reaching a point of no return.”
The leftist leader questioned the global economic model that supports the use of fossil fuels, asking whether “capitalism can adapt to a way of life that is not based on fossil fuels.” He said the UN’s climate talks had failed, he said “state unity has failed” and called for broader action outside of governments.
Petro also linked current conflicts with energy dependence, saying “the wars we see are driven by desperate political strategies around natural resources.”
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused ‘the biggest threat to energy security in history,’ said Fatih Birol, director general of the International Energy Agency. Ryan Cummings of the Stanford Institute for Economy Policymaking says the shutdown so far is equivalent to a billion barrels of oil out of the economy.
The Minister of Environment in Colombia, Irene Vélez Torres, said in opening remarks before Petro’s speech that the conflict in the Middle East revealed that “we are not only facing a climate and environmental problem, but also an economic and national security problem.”
Petro has positioned Colombia as a leading voice for a global shift away from fossil fuels while pushing for gradual change at home that balances climate goals with economic realities.
It is an important time for international cooperation
Outside the conference venue in the morning, members of the mining union protested Petro and the event, chanting through megaphones and carrying signs that read: “I’m coming to the conference by plane to criticize the oil industry,” “More oil, less Petro,” and “Protect the oil barrels.”
With the election a month away, Petro has kept a promise he made after taking office to stop new oil and gas exploration and steer the country to a post-fossil economy, as the Andean country still relies heavily on oil and coal.
Vélez Torres placed the rally as an important moment of international cooperation.
“Let this conference be a time when desire becomes unity and where cooperation becomes the way to a future beyond the power of fossil fuels,” he said on Tuesday morning. “Let’s make this a turning point in history.”
Yuvelis Morales Blanco, a 25-year-old activist from Puerto Wilches, Colombia, spoke at the opening meeting and called for urgent action and community-based change.
“We have been called to make the world we envisioned a reality,” he said. He urged governments to take “concrete and concrete steps” to move away from fossil fuels and protect the environment. “We want energy justice, climate justice and justice for youth and children.”
The discussions in Santa Marta so far have highlighted the major challenge of financing reforms, especially in developing countries that face high borrowing costs and limited access to finance.
Van Veldhoven of the Netherlands said that access to affordable capital will be critical to ensuring that this change can happen globally, especially in developing countries facing high debt and limited financial space.
Participants also discussed the role of policy instruments such as carbon markets and government subsidies, and how to ensure that transitions do not repeat patterns of land use and resource exploitation that have harmed communities in the past.
Organizers say the conference will not produce binding agreements, but is intended to build political momentum and bring together countries willing to accelerate change without the formal UN process. It is also seen as a stepping stone towards future global climate talks, where funding and timing of fossil fuel cuts are expected to remain key issues.
Simon Kofe, Tuvalu’s minister of foreign affairs, considers his speech at COP27 about the country’s plans to create its own digital image as rising seas threaten its existence.
On Monday, Tuvalu, a small, low-lying Polynesian island nation in the South Pacific, announced that it would host the next oil phase-out conference. Small island nations are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Scientists and the UN say Tuvalu could be submerged by 2100 due to rising sea levels.
“The fact that the countries are on their own and … will come together again — that’s a win in my books,” McDowell said.
