Amid fuel crisis, a bold move to leave oil and gas behind in Oil & Companies News 27/04/2026 At an unprecedented meeting in Colombia, delegates from more than 50 countries want to chart a practical path to wean the world off fossil fuels. Can they succeed where the UN climate talks have failed? Cristian Retamal, Chile’s former negotiator at the annual UN climate talks, hopes this week’s conference in Colombia will lead to the start of a new global political movement. Retamal is in Colombia’s northern coastal city of Santa Marta, where representatives from more than 50 countries are meeting for the first-ever conference on transitioning away from the fossil fuels that are heating the planet. They aim to come up with a practical, equitable plan to help the world reduce its dependence on coal, oil and natural gas, and identify which legal, economic and social measures are needed to do so. The conference, taking place from April 24 to 29, was created amid frustration at last year’s UN climate conference. Despite support from a broad coalition of more than 80 countries, the talks failed to nail a binding mandate to phase out fossil fuels, due to a veto led by petrostates like Russia and Saudi Arabia. Retamal said broad international interest from all levels showed that the world recognized the need to end the fossil fuel era, despite the impasse at COP. “In the ’90s, climate became an issue at the UN level because a few countries decided to start working on that and pushing for the UN system to address the issue,” Retamal told DW. He believes the Colombia talks could be a similar catalyst. Major fossil fuel nations taking part Colombian Environment Minister Irene Velez Torres, whose country is co-hosting with the Netherlands, has said participants at the unprecedented meeting are not just countries on the front lines of climate change, like Pacific Island developing states. Major fossil fuel producing nations like Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Norway are also taking part. Germany, France and a few other EU member nations are also sending delegates, along with the European Commission. The world’s biggest coal, oil and gas producers, such as the US, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia, won’t be there. But that hasn’t stopped major environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the WWF from calling it a “historic” meeting of a new “coalition of the willing.” An end to fossil fuel subsidies? “It is implementation time, no more discussions on ambitions,” a spokesperson for Stientje van Veldhoven-van der Meer, the Dutch minister of climate and green growth, told DW. “We will start concrete work with a group of countries with shared views on what a transition away from fossil fuels looks like and what is required: decrease supply and demand,” he added. Part of that shift would include a plan to “phase out fossil fuel subsidies.” Renewable energy has seen record growth in recent years. Led by solar power, especially in China and India, clean energy sources exceeded global demand for electricity in 2025, according to the latest analysis from energy think tank Ember. The share of renewables, including solar, wind, hydropower and other clean energies, made up more than one-third of the world’s electricity mix for the first time last year. But a worldwide phaseout of fossil fuel power, and associated greenhouse gas emissions, is still some years off. Fossil fuels are being subsidized to the tune of around $920 billion (€782 billion) every year,