‘Historic breakthrough’: Colombia climate talks end with hopes raised for fossil fuel phaseout

Nearly 60 countries back voluntary roadmaps to wean world off coal, oil and gas, at conference prompted by frustration with UN climate summits

Governments have been asked to develop national “roadmaps” setting out how they will end the production and use of fossil fuels, after a landmark climate meeting involving nearly 60 countries.

The voluntary plans will form the bedrock of a new initiative to wean the world off coal, oil and gas, the focus of two days of intensive talks in Colombia this week.

The approach marks a departure from the annual UN climate negotiations, which have run for more than three decades even as greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise. Most of the world’s biggest emitters are absent from the group of 59 participants, though other countries are being invited to join.

Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister and chair of the talks, said: “We decided not to resign ourselves to an economy built on the destruction of life. We decided that the transition away from fossil fuels could no longer remain a slogan but must become a concrete, political and collective endeavour.

“When people look back on us from the future, they will not remember only this conference. They will remember whether or not we rose to the challenge of our time.”

Colombia and the Netherlands, co-hosts of the inaugural conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, convened discussions on trade, debt, producer countries’ dependence on fossil fuel exports and ways to reduce demand. In the preceding days, activists, Indigenous leaders, scientists and other experts gathered in Santa Marta to discuss the social and economic impacts of fossil fuels and ways to curb demand.

With the US, China, India, Russia and petrostates such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates absent, attendance was limited to countries willing to commit to a phaseout. This “coalition of the willing” represents more than half of global GDP, nearly a third of energy demand and a fifth of fossil fuel supply.

Almost half of the countries are fossil fuel producers, and will be expected to set out how they intend to wind down output. However, there are no stipulations on how the plans should be structured, nor deadlines for completing the transition.

Colombia published a draft roadmap during the conference and set up a scientific panel to advise countries. On Tuesday, France became the first developed country to release a national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels.

Stientje van Veldhoven, the Netherlands’ minister for climate and green growth, told the Guardian: “We see the roadmaps as the tool for the ambition with which they came here [to transition away from fossil fuels]. There will be different speeds between countries – we should allow for this and acknowledge that countries start from a different position, have different challenges, so that it cannot be one size fits all.”

While countries already publish climate plans under the Paris agreement, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), Vélez said these were not sufficient to serve as roadmaps because they addressed only countries’ domestic greenhouse gas emissions, allowing fossil fuel producers to sidestep the climate impact of their exports.

Participants also agreed to support poorer countries with the expertise needed to develop roadmaps, to scrutinise fossil fuel subsidies, and to collaborate on trade policy and financial reform – including helping poor and vulnerable countries tackle debt and raising the finance needed to make the transition.

A second conference will take place early next year on the Pacific island of Tuvalu, co-hosted by Ireland. Tuvalu’s minister for home affairs, climate and environment, Maina Talia, said: “We are encouraging governments and states [to draft roadmaps before the next conference], because if they come without concrete roadmaps, we are losing an opportunity. But, at the end of the day, they are voluntary.”

The Santa Marta conference was prompted by frustration with the UN climate summits, where consensus rules have often allowed fossil fuel interests to block direct discussion of the need to phase out coal, oil and gas. However, participating governments have said they will work closely within the UN system to help bring about global progress on the climate at the Cop31 UN climate conference in November.

Cover photo:  Colombia’s environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, (left) with her counterpart from the Netherlands, Stientje van Veldhoven, in Santa Marta. Photograph: Raúl Arboleda/AFP/Getty