By Mayara Subtil*
The 1st Conference for the Transition Beyond Fossil Fuels marked a change of direction in the global climate debate. The meeting with representatives from 57 countries and delegations in Santa Marta, Colombia, from April 24 to 29, repositioned the discussion around “how, when and with whom” to accelerate a fair, orderly and equitable energy transition to stop the rise in the planet’s temperature and ensure that forests, food security and agricultural production are out of the crosshairs of climate change.
In an international context crossed by geopolitical tensions and an increasingly narrow window for climate action, the summit brought together around 400 academics, more than 1,500 representatives of civil society, governments, indigenous peoples, traditional communities, parliamentarians, trade unions and the private sector in an unprecedented mobilization of environmental convergence.
The summit established a set of guidelines to give scale and continuity to the process begun in Santa Marta. It was announced that a second conference would be held in 2027, co-organized by the island countries of Tuvalu and Ireland, with the initial stage in the Oceania nation and a preparatory meeting in Ireland.
To sustain this effort over time, a coordination group will be created with the mission of connecting initiatives, avoiding overlaps and ensuring political coherence, in direct coordination with the COP30 Activation Group. It consists of thematic axes to give force to the “Action Agenda” of the Belem climate conference, with a focus on getting more than 600 global climate initiatives already identified off the ground.
The results will also be incorporated into the international agenda, with the host countries (Colombia and the Netherlands) sending a consolidated report on the way forward for fossil-free mechanisms to the COP30 Presidency and its integration into the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) processes, contributing both to the design of COP31, to be held in November in Antalya, Turkey, and to the second Global Stocktake, an instrument of the Paris Agreement that collectively analyzes whether countries are on course to meet the targets of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC (or, at the limit, 2ºC).
This effort has gained technical support with the launch of the Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition (SPGET), based in São Paulo and operating for five years. Led by climatologist Carlos Nobre, a former IPAM advisor, and researcher Johan Rockström, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the scientific coalition will draw up objective guidelines for governments to develop national strategies for the end of fossil fuels.
“Five months after COP30, we are once again discussing important issues that unite and need to be at the center of humanity’s concerns in the medium and long term. We are experiencing complex circumstances from a geopolitical and international security point of view, but elections and wars pass, and climate change continues. That’s why it’s essential to continue promoting these discussions,” said André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), who was in Santa Marta.
According to Guimarães, the challenge now is to turn the commitment made by Brazil under the COP30 presidency into action: to build globalroadmaps for ending the use of fossil fuels. In the middle of the Santa Marta Conference, the head of the Belem summit said it had received 444 formal contributions from countries and organizations to build national and regional transition roadmaps.
“The hope is that this will help mobilize a society that today faces so many uncertainties, but which needs to keep looking to the future. And looking to the future necessarily means advancing the climate agenda and concrete solutions to this challenge,” added the director.
After agreements reached at COP28 in Dubai, which recognize the need to move towards a transition away from fossil fuels, a gap persists between international commitments and their implementation. While investment in clean energy continues to grow, fossil fuel production and financing continues to scale up, which reinforces the urgency of aligning economic and political decisions with climate goals and, above all, scientific evidence.
Fossils such as oil, gas and coal account for around 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Given this scenario, IPAM studies indicate that Brazil can transform 40 million hectares of degraded areas into assets for a green economy. This movement also favors the transport sector, with the expansion of biofuels such as ethanol, biomethane and biodiesel, which are more accessible alternatives and less exposed to oil price fluctuations.
Also in an effort to reduce economic dependence on polluting energies, IPAM is proposing the creation of so-called green royalties: a fund of up to US$ 20 billion to compensate Brazilian states and municipalities that choose to no longer explore for oil in the Equatorial Margin.
Frenchroadmap and social demands
With the goal of advancing guidelines for the transition away from fossil fuels, Santa Marta marked the moment when France became the first major world economy to present its roadmap. The French roadmap sets deadlines for phasing out pollutants: coal by 2040, oil by 2045 and gas by 2050. Around 70% of the country’s energy comes from nuclear power, the expansion of which France sees as a strategy to advance decarbonization.
In the area of social participation, indigenous peoples, civil society organizations and religious leaders presented proposals that include the creation of “Fossil Fuel Free Zones“, places where fossil exploitation would be banned, as well as financing mechanisms based on climate reparations that do not generate debt for developing countries.
Also with the involvement of indigenous peoples and traditional communities, the “People’s Declaration for a Rapid, Equitable and Just Transition to a Future Free of Fossil Fuels” was launched on the eve of the summit. The document brings together the main demands for an end to fossil fuels from social movements, indigenous peoples, frontline communities, trade unions and activists around the world and consolidates a political agenda that calls for structural changes in the global energy model, based on climate justice and the guarantee of rights.
Among the main highlights of the text is the demand to immediately halt the opening of new exploration fronts and accelerate the end of fossil fuel production. The document also reinforces that the transition needs to be led with the direct participation of workers, local communities and indigenous peoples, ensuring that no one is left behind in the global effort to transition to clean energy.
Another central axis of the document is financing: countries of the Global North, responsible for most of the historical emissions of polluting gases, must support the Global South with public resources that do not generate debt.
The declaration also rejects false solutions that negatively impact territories and populations, defending respect for the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples, as well as promoting energy sovereignty by strengthening decentralized and community-based renewable systems.
*IPAM communications analyst. mayara.barbosa@ipam.org.br
