For three decades, global climate negotiations have focused on managing the symptoms of the crisis — emissions — while ignoring its root cause: the unchecked proliferation of oil, gas, and coal extraction. This blindspot has fueled a devastating polycrisis: climate breakdown, economic instability, conflicts, and energy imperialism. These are not separate issues; they are interlinked fires, all caused by the same spark — fossil fuel dependence.

The science is unequivocal. For the last decade, oil, gas, and coal have been responsible for 86% of the CO2 pollution heating our planet, as well as causing 1 in 5 deaths worldwide from fossil fueled-air pollution. Yet, government and industry plans are set to ramp up extraction, putting us on a path to produce 120% more fossil fuels by 2030 than what is safe for 1.5°C. We are racing in the opposite direction of science and safety.

The damage extends far beyond climate change. Their entire lifecycle — from extraction to combustion — undermines global health, security, and justice, driving unprecedented impacts on Indigenous Peoples, biodiversity, communities, lives, livelihoods and cultures; economic instability from volatile energy markets, supply shocks, and debt entrapments; as well as geopolitical pressure and conflicts over outdated, finite and dangerous resources.

The current wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, fueled by fossil fuel revenues and geopolitics, do not sideline the transition debate; they radically reinforce its necessity. Because fossil fuel production is so structurally embedded in global markets, financial systems, and geopolitics, no single country can manage this transition alone. Coordinated international cooperation, grounded in equity and justice, is essential to prevent disorderly phase-outs, economic downturns, and new forms of energy inequality. 

The demand to transition away from fossil fuels is no longer only a whisper that many don’t have the courage to say out loud, it’s a universal cry for survival: we need to equitably move away from the extraction plotting our destruction. We need a global transition away from fossil fuels that is fast, fair, and financed — one that strengthens energy sovereignty, stabilizes economies, and supports workers and communities, leaving no one behind.

The Santa Marta Conference this April is the decisive opportunity to strengthen international cooperation by finally confronting these interconnected crises at their shared source. It is a historic turning point in climate diplomacy, and a fundamental act for global stability. Tired of waiting for an elusive consensus, committed, high-ambition nations are coming together, ready to move from incremental pledges to concrete action.

They will champion coordinated solutions, including strengthening multilateralism to address the threat of fossil fuel extraction. This is why a global coalition of nation-states, subnational governments, Indigenous peoples, scientists and civil society will arrive in Santa Marta calling for countries to participate in the development of a Fossil Fuel Treaty as a key outcome of the summit.

In Santa Marta, empty promises are not invited. The world will judge this conference by a single measure: whether it delivers concrete, integrated action on the three pillars essential for a just transition. This is not about negotiating a text, but forging a new diplomatic reality, with a global coalition of countries ready to work together to manage a fast, fair and financed phase out of fossil fuels outside the barriers of consensus-based negotiations.

This begins with economic liberation — overcoming economic dependence and breaking the debt-fossil fuel trap. We cannot ask Global South nations to abandon fossil revenues while they are strangled by the debts used to extract them. A just transition is impossible without systemic debt relief and direct, scaled financial support from historical emitters who made their wealth through burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution. This is not aid; it is owed reparations, the foundation for building sovereign, productive economies that liberate people from volatile markets and extractivism.

Simultaneously, we must ignite a fair and fast transformation of fossil fuel supply and demand. The first, non-negotiable step is a global halt to new fossil fuel extraction — the definitive signal to redirect trillions toward accessible, decentralized renewable energy. But speed without equity is meaningless. An inequitable transition is an impossible one. Nations with greater dependence and less capacity cannot build a new future unless they receive the finance and the time to do so; without it, they are locked into the past. Wealthiest nations must move first, leading the phase-out and ending the perverse logic of subsidizing our own destruction. Redirecting vast public funds from the pockets of big polluters is a fiscal and moral win, building true energy security for all — one that cannot be weaponized or withheld.

Ultimately, this is about advancing international cooperation as the final act of strategic peacemaking. Fossil fuels are the currency of conflict, funding wars and fueling geopolitical coercion while their extraction has also driven the erosion of traditional cultures, territories, ecosystems and ways of life that have sustained life on this planet. By cooperatively managing their decline, we undertake one of the most significant global de-escalations in history. Santa Marta is thus not merely a climate conference; it is where we must choose to strengthen a multilateralism rooted in shared survival, where diplomatic action unites with civil society and grassroots’ voices, and Indigenous leadership. 

In Santa Marta, we are not just transitioning energy systems; we are laying the foundations for a more stable, peaceful, healthy, and safe world. This requires ensuring Santa Marta isn’t a one-off meeting, but the start of an ongoing multilateral process uniting the highest ambition coalition of nations ready to address the threat of fossil fuels and closing the governance gaps, including through advancing the negotiation of a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

Santa Marta is not an isolated event but the launch of a decisive diplomatic wave, and a major step toward the negotiation of a global framework on transitioning away from fossil fuels. The decision to hold a series of global conferences, including this first summit in Colombia, was made by the 18 countries participating in the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. 

This builds on the proven model of international conferences that addressed other major global threats like landmines, ozone-depleting chemicals, and nuclear weapons — conferences that shifted narratives and changed history. We are now leaving Colombia with an unambiguous political mandate: to establish, within a year, formal negotiations for a Fossil Fuel Treaty, a binding international framework to manage a global just transition and an equitable fossil fuel phase-out, with the key next step being a second international conference in the Pacific, hosted by Tuvalu.

The Treaty framework is the logical, necessary outcome of the action forged in Santa Marta. It is championed by an unprecedented alliance of nation-states, subnational governments, parliamentarians, civil society, health and faith leaders, Indigenous communities, trade unions, scientists, and youth, and is reinforced by the recent International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion (ICJAO) and major institutions like the European Parliament, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It provides a concrete mechanism to complement and reinforce the Paris Agreement. 

A Fossil Fuel Treaty is the most comprehensive articulation of an actionable, timebound and legally binding global plan for a just transition away from fossil fuels, with equity and justice at the center. Accelerating a global just transition is the most urgent act of courage of our time. It is the foundation for a livable, healthy, fair, and peaceful future that humanity and our planet desperately needs. This collective journey begins in Santa Marta.