Climate News

Colombia hosts the first summit on leaving fossil fuels as an energy crisis deepens

Colombia has hosted what Carbon Brief calls the first summit on "transitioning away" from fossil fuels, in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta. The phrase echoes the agreement reached at the COP28 climate talks in 2023. The Los Angeles Times framed the meeting against its backdrop: a global energy crisis that has deepened as the talks took place.

Ahead of the summit, Carbon Brief revealed that scientists had told the Colombian meeting to "halt new expansion" of fossil fuels. The Guardian reported that a new global panel was being set up to speed up the move away from fossil fuels. Climate Home News singled out six nations at Santa Marta that it said could shape the future of fossil fuels, and published a separate look at what fossil fuels cost in a world at war.

"Colombia hosts talks on exiting fossil fuels as global energy crisis deepens." — headline, via Los Angeles Times

How each outlet framed it

• Los Angeles Times — timing: talks on leaving fossil fuels while the world scrambles for energy.
• Carbon Brief — from the scientists' advice before the summit to a list of key outcomes after it.
• Climate Home News — the politics: which six countries could decide the summit's weight.
• The Guardian — the new international panel aimed at accelerating the shift.

What we don't know yet: whether the countries meeting in Santa Marta will carry a joint plan to the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, in November, and whether the energy crisis speeds up the shift or slows it.