Fifty-six countries gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, for the first international conference dedicated to mapping a fair and orderly transition away from fossil fuels, closing a two-day ministerial summit on April 28–29 with growing pressure to turn years of pledges into action. Co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, the conference saw participating nations create new collaborations to coordinate cuts to fossil fuel production and decarbonise trade. A new international scientific panel on the energy transition was also formally launched. The conference was announced last year after nation

Fifty-six countries gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, for the first international conference dedicated to mapping a fair and orderly transition away from fossil fuels, closing a two-day ministerial summit on April 28–29 with growing pressure to turn years of pledges into action.

Co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, the conference saw participating nations create new collaborations to coordinate cuts to fossil fuel production and decarbonise trade. A new international scientific panel on the energy transition was also formally launched.

The conference was announced last year after nations failed to include an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final deal at the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Brazil. Organisers say it gained momentum after the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran ignited a global energy crisis, underscoring the risks of fossil fuel dependence.

The world's largest oil and gas producer, the United States, was not in attendance. Organisers did not invite the Trump administration, citing his repeated actions to undermine the clean energy transition. The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the administration would not participate in what it called the "bogus climate agenda,"  according to euronews.

China, Saudi Arabia and Russia also did not attend, while major fossil fuel producers including Canada, Norway, Angola and Brazil did participate.

The conference did not produce a negotiated political outcome. Financing remains the central challenge, particularly in the Global South, where high borrowing costs and limited access to capital continue to constrain the shift even as renewable energy becomes cheaper than fossil fuels.

Developing nations pushed back on the pace and terms of any phase-out. "Not phasing out, phase down. That is the message," said Onuoha Magnus Chidi, an adviser to Nigeria's regional development minister, pointing to job losses in the fossil fuel sector.

Conference organizers said participants left Colombia with an unambiguous political mandate to establish, within a year, formal negotiations for a Fossil Fuel Treaty, a binding international framework to manage a global just transition and an equitable fossil fuel phase-out.

Ireland and Tuvalu were announced as co-hosts of the second conference in 2027. The talks also set the stage for COP31, the official U.N. climate summit scheduled for Antalya, Turkey, in November 2026.

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