Dear friends,
On 23 June, during London Climate Action Week, Colombia and the Netherlands released the final outcome report of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. The Santa Marta conference, held in April, was a groundbreaking development: the start of the first international process dedicated solely to discussing the just transition from fossil fuels.
The conference 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 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.
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.
So, what next? The 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. There are real questions for the road ahead, for example: how to ensure the Santa Marta Process provides an opportunity for meaningful participation to advance the critical efforts of states and non-state actors alike, and how to turn the wealth of ideas raised into concrete mechanisms, and how to shift from dialogue to action and international cooperation.
Tuvalu and Ireland, who took the baton at the close of the first conference, can build on the report as a strong foundation for that work as they design the intersessional process, including how to take up the proposed workstreams alongside any additional workstreams they may wish to pursue. The Second Conference will be held in the Pacific in 2027, and we look forward to voyaging toward it with you.
Our work ahead is clear: the Santa Marta conference has opened the door to discuss greater international cooperation on a global just transition, in parallel with the UNFCCC as a way to try to overcome the deadlock in consensus negotiations. Now, the world must take the next step and seize the opportunity to transform this discussion into real action. In the year ahead, we will be urging governments to participate in developing a Fossil Fuel Treaty and to secure a negotiating mandate for a new international instrument to manage a transition that is fast, fair and financed. We hope you’ll join us in this historic effort.
Warm wishes,
Rebecca Byrnes
Legal Strategy Director
