A final report from a Fossil Fuels Treaty conference in St. Marta, Colombia, has been released – Image: Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative
The final outcome report of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels has been released by Colombia and the Netherlands. The Santa Marta conference earlier this year was a groundbreaking development and the start of the first international process dedicated solely to discussing the just transition from fossil fuels, according to the global Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative.
The report is a co-chair’s summary of that exchange rather than a negotiated outcome. It sets out a ten-point “Santa Marta Vision” which frames the transition away from fossil fuels as ‘one of the defining priorities of our time’, requiring a whole-of-economy response rather than climate policy alone. It recognises that the depth of some countries’ economic dependence on fossil fuels calls for international cooperation beyond what traditional UN spaces have delivered, with national roadmaps developed hand-in-hand with international support and accelerated through ‘plurilateral action’. The report captures a striking range of proposals, including frameworks for cooperation between producer and consumer countries, mechanisms to address how debt drives fossil fuel expansion, concessional finance for the transition, and approaches to legal barriers such as investor-state dispute settlement.
Fossil Fuel Treaty as a global framework
The report makes clear that the ideas needed to manage a global just transition already exist. What is missing is not imagination, but architecture. One of the most prominent proposals, endorsed by 80% of sectors and raised by many states, is to negotiate a Fossil Fuel Treaty as a global framework to establish the mechanisms required for the transition. Five out of the ten points highlighted in the ‘Santa Marta Vision’ section of the report also advance the argument for a Treaty.
The St. Marta conference in Colombia brought together nearly sixty countries from every continent. The conversation finally focused on how, not if, countries can pursue a global just transition from fossil fuels. The report records their views alongside those of fourteen ‘stakeholder chapters’ – subnational governments, academia, social movements, non-governmental organisations, trade unions, parliamentarians, the private sector, multilateral development banks, Indigenous Peoples, peoples of African descent, peasants, children and youth, women and diversities and faith-based groups – who contributed through written submissions and dialogues throughout the process.
The final outcome report identifies five ‘pathways’, with three workstreams currently identified to deliver them. It will be presented to the UN Secretary-General during New York Climate Week in September. The next, Second Conference, will be hosted by Tuvalu and Ireland and held in the Pacific in 2027.
Read the report and watch the video:
NAN 14-07-26
You might also like:
GLOBAL ISSUES: How to choose the 7 contemporary Wonders of the World
The World Travel & Tourism Council in Madrid, Spain, invites the World to choose the 7 Contemporary Wonders of the World. The WTTC has launched the search for the 7 Contemporary Wonders of the World, a global initiative designed to identify and celebrate the landmarks and buildings created since 1801 that have had the greatest more…
