Santa Marta opened a new chapter for the fossil fuel transition: now comes the hard part

The Santa Marta conference on fossil fuel phaseout shifted the global conversation from whether to transition to how to implement it, establishing three workstreams for national roadmaps, financial restructuring, and trade alternatives. While the summit is praised for providing civil society and Indigenous Peoples more direct access to decision-making, the author warns that the process risks becoming 'consultation theatre' unless participation is substantive and roadmaps include accountability mechanisms and the engagement of major emitters.

• The Santa Marta summit established an implementation process consisting of three workstreams to guide work until the 2027 conference in Tuvalu: the development of voluntary national and regional fossil fuel phase-out roadmaps linked to NDCs; the addressing of financial structures such as debt and subsidies that maintain fossil fuel dependence; and the mapping and replacement of high-emission trade flows with cleaner alternatives, supported by the OECD.
• France announced a specific roadmap during the summit with targets to end the consumption of coal by 2030, oil by 2045, and fossil gas by 2050.
• The summit's structure allowed civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and frontline communities more direct access to decision-making than typical COP formats, with representatives speaking in plenary sessions alongside ministers.
• The 'People’s Summit' consolidated three primary demands: a rights-based transition; genuine funding commitments including non-debt-creating public finance and climate reparations for the Global South; and decision-making processes that center those most affected by the climate crisis and transition.
• The author identifies five critical risks for the process: the potential to weaken the UNFCCC's universal legal grounding; the difficulty of engaging major emitters and fossil fuel producers; the lack of institutional safeguards for substantive civil society participation; the exclusion of affected communities from bilateral financial negotiations; and the absence of independent monitoring and consequences for non-delivery of roadmaps.

APA

Global Witness (2026). Santa Marta opened a new chapter for the fossil fuel transition: now comes the hard part. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/santa-marta-opened-a-new-chapter-for-the-fossil-fuel-transition-now-comes-the-hard-part/

Chicago

Global Witness. Santa Marta opened a new chapter for the fossil fuel transition: now comes the hard part. 2026. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/santa-marta-opened-a-new-chapter-for-the-fossil-fuel-transition-now-comes-the-hard-part/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Global Witness |title=Santa Marta opened a new chapter for the fossil fuel transition: now comes the hard part |date=20 April 2026 |url=https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/santa-marta-opened-a-new-chapter-for-the-fossil-fuel-transition-now-comes-the-hard-part/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{globalwitness2026santa, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{Santa Marta opened a new chapter for the fossil fuel transition: now comes the hard part}}, publisher = {Global Witness}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/santa-marta-opened-a-new-chapter-for-the-fossil-fuel-transition-now-comes-the-hard-part/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }