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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/17/colombia-convenes-climate-coalition-of-the-willing-to-break-global-fossil-fuel-deadlock>
"Everybody knows fossil fuels cause climate breakdown, but until recently,
mention of them was all but erased from the annual UN climate summits. Last
year, two weeks of discussions ended without fossil fuels being mentioned in
the final outcome.
Frustration with those talks led a small developing country with a large fossil
fuel sector – Colombia, the largest coal and fourth biggest oil exporter in the
Americas – to rewrite the rules. With co-convener the Netherlands, and support
from more than 50 countries, Colombia will host a groundbreaking new global
conference this month to begin the long-awaited “transition away from fossil
fuels”.
Now, with nations embroiled in another oil-inflected war and fuel prices
soaring worldwide as a consequence, the conference in Santa Marta on 28 and 29
April looks more prescient than ever.
Countries are paying the price for oil addiction, not just in their energy
bills but in food prices, consumer inflation, shortages, and businesses
threatened with collapse. “We, of course, didn’t know that war was going to
break out, but we knew the challenges of a dependency on fossil fuels,” said
Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister, who will preside over the
talks. “This conference comes in the best possible moment.”
The oil crisis, sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, is spotlighting the
stark choice world leaders face between oil, gas and coal and the cleaner,
safer renewable energy of the future. This is “the moment in which history is
going to split,” said Vélez.
Spurred by soaring prices, some countries – and millions of individuals – are
already making the switch. Record numbers of households in the UK are turning
to solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps. Not counting China, global
power generation from coal and gas has fallen, while renewables have surged
ahead, with solar generation up 14% and wind by 8%. After the closure of the
Hormuz strait, coal-fired power generation fell in the US, India, EU, Turkey
and South Africa, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air,
despite fears that countries would return to coal.
For the first time, the countries that want to forge ahead with the energy
transition cannot be held back by the naysayers, Vélez told the
Guardian in
an interview. With a “coalition of the willing”, Colombia and co-host the
Netherlands hope to break the deadlock of the long-running UN climate talks
that are frequently hijacked by the unwilling."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
