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First modification: 05/06/2026 - 22:10

Leaving oil, gas and coal behind has become one of the biggest challenges of the global energy transition. Although there are dozens of proposals to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the speed and viability of the change depend on the economic and political context of each country. The debate gained momentum during the first world conference dedicated exclusively to this topic, held in Colombia, where governments, experts and organizations discussed possible routes towards an economy less dependent on fossil energy.

A world without oil, gas or coal. It is not a utopia. On the contrary, for 57 countries it is an objective. Colombia hosted the first International Conference for the Transition beyond Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, between April 24 and 29.

The movement was born in 2025 in the absence of a roadmap in Brazil's final COP30 agreement that would chart the course to progressively abandon fossil fuels. Colombia promoted the initiative to group countries that were interested in transitioning to renewable energies and the Netherlands joined the effort as co-organizer of the event.

The result was a meeting of almost 60 States that represent 30% of the fossil fuels consumed on the planet, as stated by the Dutch Minister of Climate and Green Growth, Stientje van Veldhoven. The rest is that the economies of many of these countries are still dependent on fossil fuels.

Colombia, the host, depends 41% on oil and 21% on gas, according to the report 'This is how energy goes' by the organization Transforma; while renewable energies barely reach a fifth of its energy matrix. Its economy until now remains so dependent on fossils that fuels and their derivatives were the most exported products in 2025, representing almost 40% of all its exports. Although the Government of Gustavo Petro has opted for decarbonization and, in these efforts, reduced fuel exports by about 18% between 2024 and 2025.

On the other hand, France arrived with its own roadmap, but fossils still generate almost 30% of its energy. Its strategy for change is to go through green hydrogen and nuclear, which is the main source of its energy matrix, according to the International Energy Agency.

How to decarbonize a country?

That is the big question that States are asking themselves today and the path is neither unique nor simple. COP30 alone has received 267 proposals on how to transition to renewable energies, most of them from civil organizations. While in Santa Marta, different groups met to present their proposals. Groups such as civil society, indigenous people or business people shared their conclusions with the high-level leaders of the 57 countries that attended. They, in turn, will unify these ideas to share them in Bonn, Germany, in June of this year, when the technical meetings are held for the COP31 climate summit to be held in Turkey.

In other words, the Santa Marta conference does not come with a solution to abandon fossil fuels, but they do aspire to consolidate a proposal to create a roadmap and put it on the multilateral discussion table at the UN climate summit.

One of the proposals came from a group of more than 400 scientists from around the world. They presented the Santa Marta Action Repertoire (SMART) report, in which they proposed 12 practical ideas on how to progressively abandon oil, gas and coal. His ideas revolve around three axes: what can be done to overcome economic dependence on fossil fuels, how supply and demand can be transformed, and what is needed to boost international cooperation and climate diplomacy.

Professors Andrea Carolina Cardoso, from Colombia; and Friedrich Bohn, from Germany; They were part of the team that coordinated and edited the scientists' report. They explained to France 24 that decarbonization roadmaps depend on the realities of each region and each country, so there is no global solution to the transition.

Lessons learned in Colombia and Germany

The Colombian case, for example, shows the importance of decarbonization being planned. In 2021, the Prodeco company closed the Calenturitas and La Jagua open pit coal mines.

“This generated an economic crisis in the Colombian Caribbean region throughout the entire coal value chain,” explained Cardoso, a full-time professor at the University of Magdalena.

The lesson was to plan for shutdowns and transitions to other energy sources.

"These unplanned closures are a bad action because the communities and workers are the ones who are harmed the most. Therefore, it is much more possible to do it planned in a roadmap, to do it with economic diversification, with labor retraining of workers. And we see that it is possible because in several countries there are actions that are aimed at getting rid of fossil fuels," added Professor Cardoso.

The challenge is greater because the largest open pit coal mine in Latin America and located in northern Colombia, El Cerrejón, has a valid license until 2034.

Germany brings another perspective. Dr. Bohn, co-founder of the Earth Resilience Institute, highlights that the key is not only technology, but the exchange of success stories between nations.

"Here we have the phasing out of coal mining and coal power plants. In this case, of course, we have to include or develop action plans also for the workers in this coal industry. What we have learned in Germany is that if you have a small town and there is a hill with good wind, you can build some wind turbines. It is very important that these people participate in the profits, so that they agree to build them in their backyard. If you do that, then the idea will have a lot of support because you make money from it," said the doctor Bohn.

In the absence of a global consensus, the summit in Colombia left a lesson: the exit from fossils must be built from the territory and with the knowledge of the communities. Professor Cardoso explains that the scientific chapter was also made up of indigenous academics.

"I think that what we academics from the Global South are working on most is the ecosocial pact. These economies for life that the Colombian government works on, grassroots economies of the communities, surpass that neoliberal economic system. Thinking about economic alternatives to stop depending on fossil fuels is possible and we must return to those views of the cosmogony of the origins," explains Andrea Carolina Cardoso.

She gives as an example agroecological systems and alternative systems to monocultures. “Something that for Santa Marta is very significant and that it teaches us and that from the university we are in constant dialogue with that traditional indigenous knowledge of returning to the origins of systems,” concludes the professor. A bet that can contribute to progressively abandoning fossil fuels.

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