In three weeks, the port city of Santa Marta, Colombia will host something that has never existed before: a government-level international conference dedicated specifically to planning the end of fossil fuel extraction. [1]

The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, convenes April 28-29. It follows directly from the Belem Declaration on Just Transition, signed at COP30 in November 2025. [2] The venue is deliberate — Santa Marta is one of the world's major coal export hubs, and Colombia is both a significant fossil fuel producer and a country acutely vulnerable to climate impacts.

The conference architecture centers on the "Just Transition" framework: the principle that fossil fuel phase-outs must account for workers, communities, and economies dependent on extraction. [3] A Global Assembly of Parliamentarians for a Fossil Free Future will meet two days prior, on April 26. [4]

The timing is complicated. The US-Iran war spiked global energy prices and reignited debates about energy security versus climate ambition. Ceasefire or not, the Strait of Hormuz disruption reminded every government on Earth what fossil fuel dependency costs in a crisis.

The United States is not listed among the conference's sponsors. Whether Washington sends a delegation remains unclear, though the current administration's posture toward climate conferences has been consistently skeptical.

For climate activists, Santa Marta represents the moment talk becomes architecture. For skeptics, it is another summit in a city whose economy depends on the thing being discussed.

-- LUCIA VEGA, Sao Paulo