Now, with nations embroiled in another oil-inflected war and fuel prices soaring worldwide as a consequence, the conference in Santa Marta on 28 and 29 April looks more prescient than ever.<\/p>\n
Irene V\u00e9lez Torres, Colombia\u2019s minister of environment and sustainable development, speaks at the COP30 UN climate summit, 21 November 2025, in Belem, Brazil. Photograph: Fernando Llano\/AP<\/p>\n
Countries are paying the price for oil addiction<\/a>, not just in their energy bills but in food prices, consumer inflation, shortages, and businesses threatened with collapse. \u201cWe, of course, didn\u2019t know that war was going to break out, but we knew the challenges of a dependency on fossil fuels,\u201d said Irene V\u00e9lez Torres, Colombia\u2019s environment minister, who will preside over the talks. \u201cThis conference comes in the best possible moment.\u201d<\/p>\n The oil crisis, sparked by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, is spotlighting the stark choice<\/a> world leaders face between oil, gas and coal and the cleaner, safer renewable energy of the future. This is \u201cthe moment in which history is going to split,\u201d said V\u00e9lez.<\/p>\n Spurred by soaring prices, some countries \u2013 and millions of individuals \u2013 are already making the switch. Record numbers of households in the UK are turning to solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps. Not counting China, global power generation from coal and gas has fallen, while renewables have surged ahead, with solar generation up 14% and wind by 8%. After the closure of the Hormuz strait, coal-fired power generation fell in the US, India, EU, Turkey and South Africa, according to<\/a> the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, despite fears that countries would return to coal.<\/p>\n For the first time, the countries that want to forge ahead with the energy transition cannot be held back by the naysayers, V\u00e9lez told the Guardian in an interview. With a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d<\/a>, Colombia and co-host the Netherlands hope to break the deadlock<\/a> of the long-running UN climate talks that are frequently hijacked by the unwilling.<\/p>\n While 54 countries have confirmed their attendance at the conference, some of the world\u2019s biggest economies and biggest polluters, including the US, China, India, Russia and the Gulf petro states, will be missing. \u201cWhatever nations have not yet taken that decision, then this is not the space for them. We are not going to have boycotters or climate denialists<\/a> at the table,\u201d V\u00e9lez said.<\/p>\n The 54 countries confirmed represent about a fifth of global fossil fuel production and about a third of demand. They include the UK, the EU, Canada, and Australia and Turkey, which will jointly preside over the next UN climate summit, Cop31<\/a>, this November. Among the dozens of developing countries confirmed are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, such as Pacific islands, but also major fossil fuel producers, such as Nigeria, Angola, Mexico and Brazil.<\/p>\n Tzeporah Berman, founder of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, said the Santa Marta conference, intended to be the first of a series, would complement rather than replace the annual UN summits. \u201cThe UN Framework Convention on Climate Change [UNFCCC] plays a vital role in climate governance, and will continue to do so,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, it\u2019s a consensus-based process and has become deadlocked on the core issue of fossil fuels<\/a>. Year after year, we\u2019ve seen this deadlock exploited<\/a> to delay meaningful action on fossil fuel supply.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776419288_563_1920.jpg\")
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