Colombia and the Netherlands have set out three priorities for a conference on phasing out fossil fuels they will co-host in Colombia in April.
One of the focuses of the event — which will be held in Santa Marta on 24-29 April and was first announced during the UN Cop 30 climate summit in November — will be the economic transition away from dependence on fossil fuels.
"We are saying that productive countries like Colombia, and many others in the global south, depend economically on the production and export of these carbon-intensive commodities," Colombian environment minister Irene Velez Torres said. "We have to be able to make economies move beyond this production model."
The second issue the conference will focus on is the balance between supply and demand, which includes "key issues" such as energy sovereignty and energy security, Torres said. "We want European countries in particular — where this debate has been central to energy policy — to share the challenges and pending decisions that remain on the table", she added
The event will also focus on fossil fuel subsidies and how to move away from them on a national scale.
The conference is looking for "concrete terms" on how to move away from fossil fuels, Dutch climate policy minister Stientje van Veldhove said. It will "concentrate on the practical nuts and bolts of the transition" and draw on "strong foundations" laid by coalitions such as the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and the Powering Past Coal Alliance, she said.
The conference will also produce a report on the topic to be shared with the Cop 30 and Cop 31 presidencies, van Veldhove said.
The Cop 30 presidency pledged at the summit in November to create a roadmap on the phase out of fossil fuels, which would be presented at Cop 31 — to be held in Turkey in November of this year — after the topic failed to appear in any of the summit's final texts despite support from over 80 countries.
Almost 200 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in a landmark decision at Cop 28 in 2023, in Dubai.
The Cop 30 presidency has said that an initial draft of the roadmap could be ready by the conference in Colombia.
Additionally, the conference will serve as a complement to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) instead of replacing it, the head of international affairs at Colombia's environment ministry Daniela Duran said.
"We want to generate a sense of process," Torres said. "That is to say, this is the first conference and we want to have the next one. We also want to have a technical secretary to encourage these debates", she said.
More than 2,600 organizations have registered for the conference, she said. Colombian president Gustavo Petro is set to attend, while the presence of Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten is still unclear.
No naysayers
The conference will not attempt to change the minds of those who are skeptical about the transition away from fossil fuels, but rather speak to a "coalition of the willing", Torres said.
"This is a conference for those who are already convinced and ready to work on solutions for the transition," Duran added.
While the US is unlikely to send federal representatives — President Donald Trump has scaled down the US' climate action plans and withdrawn from UNFCCC — the conference has sent an invitation for California governor Gavin Newsom, Duran said. "Although the US' federal policies are not aligned with the conference's principles, we know that some states have played an important role [in climate discussions] and have learned lessons that can be brought to the conference".
