SANTA MARTA, COLOMBIA — An international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels opened Friday in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, Colombia, with more than 50 countries participating. The meeting, organized by Colombia and the Netherlands, drew attendees including oil producer Nigeria, consumer Germany and the European Union.

China, the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela did not participate. Saudi Arabia has blocked references to phasing out fossil fuels during international talks.

The Santa Marta gathering will use a participatory process involving governments, scientists and civil society to inform a high-level segment rather than to make formal decisions. Its outcomes will be consolidated into a final report rather than a binding agreement.

The conference site sits near the Pozos Colorados fuel terminal, which handles most of Colombia's fuel imports and where oil tankers routinely unload. In June a subsidiary of Ecopetrol SA unveiled Colombia's largest storage tank at the terminal.

"Countries are going into Santa Marta with the energy crisis at the top of most of their minds. They have a visceral reminder of just how volatile, unpredictable, and unstable it is to rely on fossil fuels," said Natalie Jones, senior policy advisor at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The Iran war is disrupting energy markets.

Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, addressed expectations for the meeting. "My expectation is not that this is going to deliver huge results after one conference," he said. "But it is important to have this process with this coalition of the willing."

Countries agreed at COP28 in Dubai in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels. At COP30 in Brazil, about 80 countries backed a road map to phase out oil, gas and coal, but the road map was dropped from the final COP30 document due to lack of consensus. The COP30 presidency of Brazil has proposed a global road map to exit fossil fuels and expects to deliver it at COP31 in Turkey in November.

"The mere fact that the conference is happening is already a success," said Claudio Angelo, senior policy adviser at Brazil's Climate Observatory. "We've known since at least the 1960s that fossil fuels cause climate change, and yet there has never been a gathering of countries specifically to discuss how to deal with that."

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who took office in 2022, halted new oil and gas exploration, pushed for a ban on fracking and backed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Oil and coal account for roughly half of Colombia's exports, and a domestic gas shortage has increased demand for Colombian coal. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31, 2026, with a potential second round three weeks later.

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels reached 38.1 billion tons in 2025, a 1.1% increase over the previous year, according to the Global Carbon Budget. The U.N.'s 2025 Emissions Gap Report projects temperatures rising by 2.3C to 2.5C this century if current climate pledges are fully implemented, while existing policies point to a trajectory closer to 2.8C.