Context

Before governments even sat down in Santa Marta, civil society had already set the terms of the conversation. Ahead of the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands in the coal port of Santa Marta from 24–29 April 2026, a global coalition of civil society organisations and social movements , frontline organisations, Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant communities, Feminists, Environmental, Youth and Workers from every region published the People's Declaration for a Rapid, Equitable, and Just Transition for a Fossil-Free Future: 15 principles across four clusters of demands covering fossil fuel phase-out timelines, renewable energy, financial system transformation, and systemic justice. It was not a wish list. It was a baseline. One that builds on decades of leadership, campaigns, movement building and justice-centred demands. Read the full People’s Declaration.

The Santa Marta conference was a historic first: for decades, governments have failed to sufficiently address the threat of fossil fuels, and for the first time in history, an international conference broke the implementation deadlock and facilitated groundbreaking dialogue on the practicalities of implementing the transition away from fossil fuels. The co-hosts’ final report documents the outcomes and discussions of the conference, including a "Santa Marta Vision" of 10 points, 5 operational pathways, 3 ongoing workstreams, and a large body of stakeholder quotes and co-hosts’ summaries. It is the most substantial government-level document on fossil fuels to date, and our movement's fingerprints are all over it. Read the full Co-host Outcome Report.

However, alarming gaps remain: demands to end fossil fuel expansion, militarism, and genocide-enabling fossil fuel exports and imports, as well as the need for corporate and Global North accountability, were raised loudly by many sectors, but largely remain absent from the co-hosts' report. Furthermore, there is a notable gap between the positions of governments, and the summaries of more powerful, science-aligned and justice centered statements from civil society and many sectors including Indigenous Peoples, Afro-Descendant communities, women and diversities, Environmental defenders, children and youth, and trade unions who were consistently bolder than the governments that followed them. 

Furthermore, there was a lack of transparency on which governments were invited – there was an open door to wealthy nations particuarly from Europe, despite centuries of fossil fuel production that has burnt through the carbon budget, yet Global South states showing transition leadership or leading discussions on economic system reforms and the need for scaled finance were excluded from the summit. In the outcomes, the Co-Hosts have also only established workstreams led by Global North institutions. The Tuvalu Summit should redress this huge political oversight and ensure Global South governments, sectors, and institutions have a central seat at the table helping drive forward the conversation on a global just transition. 

The talking points below summarise where we moved governments, where they felt short and what needs to happen next year, in the Pacific, for the Second International to be a real major step towards a fossil free future. Read the full analysis and scorecard of how the Outcome Report stacks up against the demands of the People’s Declaration.

Where we moved governments

Six of our core demands are substantially reflected in the report and now anchor active workstreams:

1. Differentiated, 1.5°C-aligned phase-out timelines: the principle that the Global North must move first and fastest is embedded across the Vision and Pathway 4. Governments must now shift this from a dialogue on differentiation, to negotiating concrete, binding, equitable timelines for a fossil fuel phase out.

2. Community-owned, decentralised renewable energy: one of the strongest points of convergence between governments and non-state actors, with a dedicated action on expanding energy access for rural and marginalised communities.

3. Free, Prior and Informed Consent for Indigenous Peoples in renewable energy siting is named explicitly in the roadmap design principles, governments must now take clear actions to ensure this right in practice.

4. Just transition for workers: social protection, retraining, and worker participation are core to Pathway 3, and like other areas of convergence must move from rhetorical dialogue to concrete just transition policies so no one is left behind.

5. Need for a Fossil Fuel Treaty: A Fossil Fuel Treaty was the most prominently supported proposals, with many Global South governments and 80% of sectors calling for an international framework to be negotiated. States must now shift from discussing this global governance gap to securing a negotiating mandate for a new international instrument.

6. Economic diversification and fiscal dependence. From the Conference’s methodological perspective, the emphasis on the need for countries to transform their economic structures and challenge the fossil-fuel-based production model represents a significant step forward. Promoting productive, rather than merely extractive, economies for the Global South, as well as value chains that enable a move away from fossil-fuel rent-seeking, is a key issue for governments in the Global South.

Each of these now needs to move from dialogue to securing binding, timebound, financed commitments, policies and instruments. That is our collective focus for the next phase of the Santa Marta Process.

Where governments fell short

• No halt to fossil fuel expansion: civil society and sectors alike called for a moratorium on new licences. It appears only as an option for future roadmaps, not a central action from governments – with many states who attended Santa Marta continuing to have plans to expand coal, oil and gas production.

• Dangerous distractions not excluded: carbon capture, offsets, nuclear and "transitional fuels" (the same language long used to justify new gas) remain open doors in the report – the incoming hosts must set clearer parameters to avoid the use of dangerous distractions.

• Debt cancellation is missing: debt swaps and restructuring made it in; yet the People’s Declaration demands of outright debt cancellation and a UN sovereign debt framework did not.

• ISDS remains unaddressed: named by governments, unions, academics and even the private sector as a top barrier slowing down the transition, yet no action element explicitly advances efforts to remove this barrier.

• Militarism and occupation are absent: Civil society’s demand to end fossil fuel transfers sustaining genocide and war does not appear anywhere in the co-hosts’ framing.

• No corporate accountability: No decommissioning obligations on fossil fuel companies, no discussion of a Treaty on Transnational Corporations, and no engagement with the People’s Declaration's structural critique of capitalism. In other words, a conference that treated the private sector as a stakeholder, not a subject of regulation, framing itself as a "coalition of doers" that gave major corporations equal standing in the process alongside rights-holders.

The pattern: Across the report, civil society's language is bolder and more specific than the conclusions of the co-hosts, and many elements discussed are not explicitly advanced in the Pathways or Workstreams. Stakeholder quotes call for cancellation, moratoria, and binding obligations; the co-hosts’ own summaries consistently soften those calls into “barriers to consider" or “options” to explore. The report separates what stakeholders said from what governments discussed, and even further from the ongoing process. In summary, our words are on the record, but not yet our victories.

What must happen now towards Tuvalu 2027

For civil society, this is a mixed legacy: our demands are on the record in ways they have never been before in any multilateral process, but we are not here just to be heard — we are here to secure action and protect life from the threat of fossil fuels. 

Santa Marta proved that governments can no longer avoid this conversation. Tuvalu 2027 must prove they can meet our vision, one grounded in science and justice – not just with dialogue, rhetoric and documents, but with concrete policies and new multilateral frameworks to manage the transition. This is why: 

• Roadmaps must carry real dates and finance: principles on differentiation must become explicit phase-out years for coal, oil and gas, by country grouping, with wealthy countries that have used up the carbon budget through historical emissions going sooner and providing finance to those that need support to transition.

• A negotiating mandate for a Fossil Fuel Treaty: governments must translate their commitment to international cooperation, and shared concern on global governance gaps, into urgent collaboration in the form of a negotiating mandate for a new international instrument between states ready to transition. 

• Dangerous distractions must be named and excluded – particularly the potential for gas expansion – not left as "differing views."

• Debt cancellation, tax justice and an ISDS exit must graduate from "barriers" raised in dialogue to ongoing efforts to develop concrete international cooperation and action that also actively promote and facilitate economic diversification in countries of the Global South where such dependence exists.

• The linkages between militarism, imperialism and genocide-enabling fossil fuel exports and imports must be front and centre of the process, particularly if states that are rapidly expanding military expenditure yet claiming to not be able to afford a transition are at the table

• Corporate and Global North accountability must be addressed and entered into the official record at the second conference, with clear and transparent conflict of Interest criteria for participation, stronger guardrails and transparency measures to limit the ability of the fossil fuel industry and other corporate vested interests from having undue influence on the process.