05/04/2026
The Santa Marta conference is “listening to the science” instead of to “disinformation and lobbying,” Irene Vélez Torres, the environment minister of Colombia, said. The overheating of the planet is already “crossing tipping points that will undermine human society within our lifetimes,” said Johan Rockstrom of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany. Rockstrom and Carlos Nobre, a senior scientist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Brazil, have assembled a panel of scientists that will advise governments on which policies work best to phase out fossil fuels. “A critical mass of 30 countries are already decarbonizing their economies, showing that it can be done,” said Rockstrom. “We’re not here to establish new climate science but to enable better and faster policymaking by governments, businesses, and all stakeholders.”
The Santa Marta conference, which concludes on April 29, is but a start, said Vélez. A follow-up conference to refine plans for how countries, regions, and economic sectors can leave fossil fuels behind—without harming workers, businesses, and governments that currently rely on fossil fuels for jobs, profits, and tax revenues—is planned for later this year. The conference’s results will also be channeled into the deliberations of the next UN climate summit, taking place in Turkey in November. But after years of “pressure and vetoes” from petro-states “against us talking about phasing out fossil fuels,” Vélez said, “here we have an alignment that is ready to act.”
Read more from Mark Hertsgaard: https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/transitioning-away-fossil-fuels-conference-colombia/
