Santa Marta (Colombia) (AFP) – The first global conference dedicated to charting an exit from fossil energies closed its doors on Wednesday in Santa Marta, Colombia, with the creation of a scientific advisory panel, the promotion of the so-called Fossil Fuel Free Zones and the announcement of Tuvalu as the venue for the next edition in 2027.
First modification: 04/30/2026 - 05:25Last modification: 04/30/2026 - 10:08
The first global conference to seek an exit from fossil energies has come to an end in Santa Marta, a coal port on Colombia's Caribbean coast, but what was promoted on the agenda?
Here are some conclusions:
Roadmaps
France drew attention at the opening of the event by publishing a "roadmap" with details of its plan to eliminate all fossil fuels by 2050.
Analysts said that no other country had published such a clear and comprehensive course, which sent an important signal from one of the most advanced economies in the world about its goals in this regard.
The commotion caused some discomfort in Santa Marta since there is no officially defined roadmap, and France did not announce a new policy, but rather existing commitments under a different title.
Other countries indicated that they also have prepared calendars to eliminate coal and other fuels, plans for the decarbonization of heavy industry and objectives for the use of renewable energy.
Leo Roberts, of think tank E3G, said a roadmap must be guided by science and make phasing out fossil fuels a "central planning principle" around which other policies gravitate.
Science "Spaghetti"
One of the main results was the creation of an expert scientific panel to advise governments, cities and regions in planning their own transition routes towards the abandonment of fossil energies.
Carlos Nobre, renowned climatologist and scientist from Brazil and one of the promoters of said panel, told AFP that "it will provide all the solutions, to implement them and to finance them."
The Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition was hilariously nicknamed the "Spaghetti" group after its acronym: SPGET.
Fossil fuel free zones
Promoted by civil society, the concept of "Fossil Fuel Free Zones" is gaining followers at international meetings and found fertile ground in Santa Marta.
The objective of these zones is to designate territories that, due to their ecological importance, from the Amazon to the Congo Basin and the Indonesian rainforest, are protected by governments to prohibit any exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons.
The think tank Earth Insight estimates that there are 58 such protected areas around the world.
Colombia, for example, banned hydrocarbon extraction and mining in its Amazon region last year to "stop the expansion of the extractive frontier," said Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres, host of the conference.
Next conference in Tuvalu
Colombia passed the baton to Tuvalu, a small island state on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, which will host the next conference for the elimination of fossil fuels in 2027.
Tuvalu is seriously threatened by rising sea levels and has become a leading voice on the international stage for impoverished countries in danger from the consequences of climate change.
"This journey that began here, in a coal port in the Caribbean Sea, is now heading to the Pacific Ocean," said Tuvalu's Climate Change Minister Maina Talia.
"I think the fact that the Pacific is far away cannot be an excuse," Nikki Reisch, of the Center for International Environmental Law, in Santa Marta, told AFP.
"Pacific island countries constantly bear the burden of going to other forums and trying to make their voices heard," he said.
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