Could this conference be a 'turning point' for the world's use of fossil fuels?

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At a hotel by the sea, more than 50 countries are participating in a two-day high-level conference to discuss concrete ways to phase out oil, gas, and coal.

"Let this conference be the moment when ambition becomes action," Colombia's environment minister Irene Vélez Torres told the countries gathered for the opening plenary. "Let's make this a turning point in history."

These high-level talks are happening amidst the backdrop of a warming planet and an energy crisis spurred by the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. High oil and gas prices and energy shortages triggered by the recent war have created what the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has called "the mother of all energy crises."

With the current fossil fuel shortages, many countries feel an increasing urgency to transition their economies away from oil, gas, and coal, says Ralph Regenvanu, minister for climate change of Vanuatu.

The island nation is threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change and relies on fossil fuel imports for transportation and electricity. The country is increasing its number of solar projects, and in recent weeks, the country brought forward its target to electrify its fleet of government vehicles. "The decision on EVs was directly stimulated by the crisis," Regenvanu tells NPR.

In many countries, affordable Chinese electric vehicles are proliferating. Meanwhile, large solar and wind projects provide more cost-competitive energy than natural gas and coal projects, according to financial services firm Lazard.

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 "Governments are not doing [the energy transition] necessarily for climate reasons," says Leo Roberts of the climate nonprofit E3G. "They're doing it because it is cheaper and more effective to move your economy away from fossil fuels — and it's safer and more secure."

The U.S., the world's largest oil and gas producer and the largest consumer of oil, is not participating in the conference. The U.S. State Department, which has in the past sent delegates to international climate talks, wrote in an email that "moving away from reliable, affordable, and secure energy to rely on intermittent and costly energy sources is destructive, and the president has been clear that the United States will not participate in the bogus climate agenda."

When renewable energy is paired with large batteries or other forms of grid management, it's proven to be reliable. China, the world's largest consumer of coal, is also not participating in the conference.

Daniela Durán, head of international affairs at Colombia's Ministry of Environment, notes that some of the world's biggest fossil fuel producers are represented at the conference, including Australia, Mexico, and Nigeria.

For countries not participating, "doors will be open for them to join" when they're ready, Durán says. "But this is not a space for us to fight about whether we are going to do [the transition away from fossil fuels]," she adds.

" This is a space for those who are ready to move forward."

Daniela Durán, head of international affairs at Colombia's Ministry of Environment, says this new conference is "a space where we can actually discuss fossil fuels." Julia Simon/NPR

Julia Simon/NPR

New ways forward

At the two-day conference, more than 50 countries are discussing ways to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels.

This includes moving subsidies for fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel to renewable energy and batteries. It also includes finding new employment opportunities for the millions of people who work in the fossil fuel sector, in places such as the coal mines south and east of Santa Marta.

Climate experts and country representatives tell NPR that this conference was born out of frustration with the yearly United Nations climate conferences. They are known as COPs, and they have been around for thirty years.

At the climate conference in Dubai in 2023, countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. But since then, countries have not agreed on how to transition away from fossil fuels.

At U.N. climate conferences, all the countries have to agree on the language in any agreement, says Johanna Gusman, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law. Gusman says fossil fuel producers like Saudi Arabia have consistently opposed having fossil fuel language in the text.

Last November at the U.N. conference in Brazil, roughly 80 countries pushed for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, but the conference ended without one. Instead, the governments of Colombia and the Netherlands announced the Santa Marta conference explicitly dedicated to transitioning away from fossil fuels.

This new conference does not replace COPs, Durán says. "It's a process that aims to complement the climate COPs, a space where we can actually discuss fossil fuels, which is something that we cannot do at climate COPs," she says.

In the U.N. process, countries have made pledges to cut emissions that heat the planet as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement. But scientists find those pledged emission cuts are not enough to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. A recent U.N. report finds that pledges would cut emissions by just 12% by 2035. Scientists say countries need to cut emissions in half by 2035.

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Cutting the use of fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy is an important way to cut emissions that heat the planet, says Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland. In an event on Monday, she called the conference in Santa Marta "a coalition of the doers."

"We have a unique opportunity to shift and move rapidly in a different direction," Robinson tells NPR. "And we cannot move rapidly enough."

The two-day high-level talks are taking place in the coastal city of Santa Marta, Colombia. Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images

Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images

Next steps

At the conference, countries will also discuss eventually making a legally binding treaty to have countries commit to these actions, says Tzeporah Berman, founder and chair of the nonprofit Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative.

But while some countries want a binding mechanism, other countries at the conference are more resistant, says Andrés Gómez, Latin America coordinator for the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative.

"[Some countries] want to continue in a way that's nonbinding, after thirty COPs," he says in Spanish with a laugh.

Durán says that this conference will hopefully lead to future conferences on transitioning away from fossil fuels. Climate experts tell NPR that the next conference will likely be hosted by Tuvalu.

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The world will "inevitably" breach the 1.5 Celsius degree limit within the coming decade, Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told the opening plenary.

Coming back from the overshoot of 1.5 degrees Celsius is still scientifically possible, Rockström said, "but it requires…accelerating transitions away from fossil fuels."

Still, he told the countries gathered at the conference, "I have, as a scientist, never felt so encouraged."

"You are the light in a tunnel of darkness," he said.