NEWSROOM
At COP30, the Governments of Colombia and the Netherlands announced that they will co-host the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. The announcement was made by Colombia’s Minister of Environment, Irene Vélez Torres, and the Netherlands’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Climate Policy and Green Growth, Sophie Hermans. The initiative was endorsed by a broad coalition of countries, including the 25 signatories of the Belém Declaration on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, which calls for accelerating efforts to implement the existing commitment to transition away from fossil fuels.
“As difficult as it can be, we also know that this conversation cannot end here. We must keep the momentum, lead with bravery, rise to the challenge, and build a coalition of the willing. We invite all willing countries, subnational actors, campesinos, afros, indigenous, NGOs to join us in Santa Marta. This will be a broad intergovernmental, multisectoral platform complementary to the UNFCCC designed to identify legal, economic, and social pathways that are necessary to make the phasing out of fossil fuels.” Minister Velez said.
There is a clear momentum to phase out fossil fuels, and now is the time to capitalize on it. We must begin to materialize what this phase-out could look like and start a concrete roadmap that allows us to incorporate the new and leave the old behind,” Minister Hermans affirmed.
