Since his election in 2022, President Gustavo Petro has promised to “detoxify” the Colombian economy from oil and coal. As the end of his mandate approaches - the first round of the next election will take place on May 31 - his ambitious energy transition project is however struggling to be accomplished in this country, a major producer of fossil fuels.

Published on: 04/28/2026 - 6:00 p.m. Modified on: 04/28/2026 - 6:04 p.m.

They are tackling the “challenge of the century”. Energy ministers from around fifty states met on Tuesday April 28 and Wednesday April 29 in the city of Santa Marta, at the foot of the Colombian Sierra Nevada massif, to address a crucial question: how to get rid of fossil fuels, the main culprits of global warming, once and for all?

At the initiative of Bogota, this summit started from a bitter observation: when it comes to tackling gas, oil and coal, the major UN meeting of the COPs is no longer enough. Certainly, in 2023, for the first time, the final text adopted at the end of COP28 in Dubai mentioned the need to begin a “transition away from fossil fuels”. But the negotiations have been slipping since then. Operating on consensus, discussions are systematically blocked by the main oil and gas producing countries.

The Santa Marta conference should help break this deadlock. No more question of whether or not to get rid of fossil fuels. This time, it is a question of discussing, between the most ambitious countries, the question of concrete solutions to achieve this.

“The most toxic for humanity: cocaine, coal or oil?”

And it is no coincidence that it is Colombia which is organizing this unique meeting. In the small world of black gold producing countries, Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the country's history, seems like a UFO. Since his inauguration in August 2022, he has continued to criticize the devastating “addiction” that oil represents for the planet and promises to make Colombia, the fourth largest oil exporter in Latin America, an economy “without oil or coal”.

In his first speech from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, in September 2022, he did not hesitate to provoke: “What is more toxic for humanity: cocaine, coal or oil?” he said.

Three months later, at COP28 in Dubai, in the oil paradise of the United Arab Emirates, he summarized his philosophy. “Some will ask how I can envisage such economic suicide [by doing without fossil fuels], knowing that we depend on oil and coal?”, he admitted. “But today we are witnessing an immense confrontation between fossil capital and human life, and we must choose a side. We choose the side of life.”

Renewable energy programs

On the ground, his sense of formula was quickly illustrated in action, even if it meant making many opponents cringe. Barely elected, Gustavo Petro increased taxes on hydrocarbons, banned all new oil prospecting contracts and launched a campaign promoting "the biological wealth of the country" rather than its wealth in fossil fuels. More recently, in 2025, the Minister of the Environment, Irene Vélez Torres, declared "the Colombian Amazon free from all extractive exploitation".

As for hydraulic fracturing, the process which allows the exploitation of shale gas, all new projects have for the moment been suspended, and a legislative standoff is currently between the government and Congress to ban them definitively.

At the same time, the government has launched various renewable energy programs, such as “Colombia Solar”. With a budget of 2 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros) until 2030, it aims to install solar parks or panels on the roofs of homes, particularly in the Caribbean area, sunny all year round.

When it comes time to take stock as Gustavo Petro's mandate ends in June, experts recognize progress. While the majority of Colombia's electricity remains hydroelectric, the share of solar and wind has jumped in the country's mix, going from 2% in 2022 to 17% in 2026, according to government figures. Solar power thus, for the first time, overtook coal in 2025.

“The year 2025 showed, for the first time, that exports in terms of remittances and foreign currencies from coffee were higher than those from coal. And 2025 was also the first year in which Colombia produced more energy from unconventional renewable sources, in particular solar, than from coal,” welcomed Colombian Minister of the Environment Irene Velez Torres, on the sidelines of the Santa Marta summit.

Nearly 30% of the country's exports

But despite these efforts, the country is in reality still far from being able to do without fossil fuels, experts point out, while oil and gas still represent 4% of GDP and 30% of exports.

“Oil remains a driving force in the Colombian economy,” Tomas Gonzalez, director of the Regional Center for Energy Studies (CREE), told the newspaper El Tiempo. “It still represents a third of exports and brings in nearly $15 billion to the Colombian state. In a country with a deficit like Colombia, oil revenues are essential for state finances,” adds the economist.

"There has been progress", but it does not mean "a real energy transition", confirms, to AFP, Oscar Vanegas, professor of economics at the Industrial University of Santander.

Doing without fossil fuels "will take several decades", recognizes energy planning specialist Ismael Suescun. But “it’s not just about stopping exploring and exploiting hydrocarbons,” he insists. It is about “being aware of the gradualness” required by the energy transition in a country with a high budget deficit and whose revenues remain dependent on hydrocarbons.

As a symbol, 200 kilometers from Santa Marta there is still the Cerrejon mine, one of the largest open-air coal mines in the world. Managed by the multinational Glencore, it is regularly singled out for its environmental and social impacts.

Environmental diplomacy

By hosting this Santa Marta conference a few weeks before the end of his mandate, Gustavo Petro certainly hopes to go beyond the limits of his country and position himself once again as a leader in the fight against fossil fuels in world diplomacy.

In 2023, Colombia was the first non-island and oil-producing country to commit to the proposed fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. This initiative, launched by a group of Pacific island nations, received the support of the European Parliament, the World Health Organization and 100 cities and local governments which aims to engage states in the energy transition.

In 2025, Gustavo Petro was the first to denounce the failure of negotiations on fossil fuels at COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Today, he therefore hopes to be the one who initiated the first international mechanism to regulate or limit the production of hydrocarbons and coal. The start of a new diplomatic sequence? A follow-up conference is already planned in Tuvalu in the fall, on the sidelines of an event bringing together heads of state before COP31.

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