Forty-six countries, including major oil, coal and gas producers such as Canada, Australia, Brazil and Norway, have confirmed they will attend next month’s first conference on speeding up the global shift from fossil fuels, the Colombian government said on Tuesday.
The summit, being held in the Colombian port city of Santa Marta from April 24-29, aims to cement an international coalition of nations committed to ending the world’s reliance on planet-heating oil, coal and natural gas.
The conference represents an “unprecedented opportunity” for the energy transition as it brings hydrocarbon-producing nations together with fossil fuel consumers and countries at the forefront of the climate crisis, Colombia’s acting environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, said in a statement.
“Despite our differences, all participants agree on the need to prioritize science and to move forward, urgently and in a coordinated manner, toward phasing out the production and consumption of natural gas, coal, and oil,” she added.
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Who is going to Santa Marta?
Canada is the largest fossil fuel producer confirmed to attend. The country accounts for roughly 6% of global oil output and 5% of gas production, with both sectors expanding over the past decade, according to the Energy Institute.
Its powerful fossil fuel industry continues to push for increased production and new export markets, particularly in Asia. However, further investment risks creating stranded assets, according to a recent report by Carbon Tracker. Canada’s latest national climate plan did not include any concrete measures to curb its fossil fuel production.
Australia will also be represented in Santa Marta as co-host of the COP31 climate summit. One of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquefied natural gas, Australia supplies energy-hungry markets across Asia. The centre-left government led by Anthony Albanese has approved 36 new or extended fossil fuel projects since taking office in 2022, according to the Climate Council.
Fellow COP31 co-host Turkey is also set to attend. Despite growing investment in renewables, the country remains heavily reliant on coal power. Murat Kurum, the incoming COP31 president, said last month that emissions cuts should not come at the expense of economic growth. “We cannot simplify things down to only fossil fuels,” he said.
Norway, another participant, has built its wealth on oil and gas exports and has become a key supplier to Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While positioning itself as a climate leader, Norway argues its relatively low-emissions production can help meet demand during the transition, a stance critics say undermines global efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
The list of participants also includes Brazil and Mexico, both among the world’s top oil producers; Angola, one of Africa’s leading oil exporters; Senegal, which only began producing oil two years ago; and Trinidad and Tobago, where hydrocarbons generate around half of government revenue. Vietnam remains heavily dependent on coal for power generation but is working with wealthy nations to accelerate a shift to renewables.
Notably absent are the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and consumers, including the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia, which together account for nearly half of global oil production. The biggest coal producers, China and India, are also not on the current list of participants.
Attendees also include nations that are highly vulnerable to the climate crisis primarily caused by burning fossil fuels, including island nations Palau, Fiji and Vanuatu, and Sierra Leone.
More momentum than commitments
The Santa Marta conference is expected to deliver political momentum rather than binding commitments, with organisers aiming to launch a “coalition of the willing” to advance a fossil fuel phase-out outside the constraints of UN consensus negotiations.
The outcomes of the summit are also expected to inform discussions at COP31, where an informal roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels drafted by the Brazilian COP30 team is expected to be delivered.
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Andreas Sieber, head of political strategy at campaign group 350.org, told Climate Home News that “starting with a coalition of doers creates momentum”.
“This also comes at a critical point in time, when ordinary people bear the cost of fossil fuel volatility and geopolitical shocks,” he added. “These countries can demonstrate what credible transition looks like and compel others to follow”.
Colombia’s Vélez Torres said last week that the global energy shock triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran could give countries the chance to build a “new geopolitical balance” by boosting the transition away from fossil fuels.
The post Major oil producers among 46 nations joining fossil fuel phase-out summit appeared first on Climate Home News.
Major oil producers among 46 nations joining fossil fuel phase-out summit
Climate Change
Large flotilla brings Pacific voices and message to leaders at Pre-COP meeting: Keep 1.5C Alive
NADI, FIJI Wednesday 7 October 2026 — Around 80 people including Pacific and Torres Strait community members, Elders and youth activists travelled as part of a colourful flotilla past the Pre-COP venues with a message for leaders: ‘Keep 1.5°C Alive’.
High res footage and images available here
The large flotilla included traditional Fijian voyaging vessel the Uto Ni Yalo, six 6-person outrigger canoes, and Greenpeace campaigning vessel the Oceania which sailed from Sydney to the Pre-COP in Nadi. On board were Elders, climate-vulnerable communities members from across the Pacific and Torres Strait, youth activists and poets, and campaigners and climate experts from across the region.
Messaging on canoes and banners said ‘Hold the Line at 1.5°C’ and ‘Keep 1.5°C Alive’ — a reminder to leaders that the climate limit established under the Paris Agreement is a non-negotiable survival line.
Shiva Gounden, Head of Pacific at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “People from across the Pacific and Australia have come together today to make sure the voices of our communities are heard by leaders meeting here in Nadi for the Pre-COP climate talks. The Taku Pakasoa Declaration adopted here at Pre-COP means ‘Strength in Unity’, and that’s how we’re coming together today.
“Our message is clear: Hold the Line on 1.5°C and centre those most impacted by the climate crisis in your decision-making. Our children’s futures must not be stolen away so that polluting nations can continue down the fossil-fuel path.
“Limiting global heating to 1.5°C is a non-negotiable survival line for Pacific communities and for humanity. Every cyclone, every storm now blows with the deadly force of accumulated emissions and gives a warning of what is to come as we face a dangerous summer of climate-fuelled extreme weather. Do not ignore our voices.”
On board, Aigagalefili Fepulea’i-Tapua’i, Pacific youth climate advocate and poet from Aotearoa Climate Action Network, said: “To hold the line on 1.5C for our Pacific family, New Zealand, as the only country where the connection between environmental protection and indigenous rights is legally validated by our constitutional document, must protect the rights of Māori.”
ENDS
Media contact: Kate O’Callaghan in Nadi on +61 406 231 892 (Whatsapp/Signal)
Large flotilla brings Pacific voices and message to leaders at Pre-COP meeting: Keep 1.5C Alive
Climate Change
A ‘victory’ for communities as High Court rules climate impacts from coal and gas must be considered even where fossil fuels are exported
SYDNEY, Wednesday 7 October 2026 — In response to the landmark High Court ruling that climate impacts of fossil fuel projects must be considered by NSW planning authorities, the following lines can be attributed to Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific
“The High Court decision today is a victory for communities that bear the brunt of the storms, bushfires and extreme weather fuelled by Australian fossil fuel corporations.
“Coal and gas companies have claimed they are not responsible for their pollution because it happens overseas, but today Australia’s highest court sided with common sense and scientific evidence to find that every new coal and gas approval in this country could put us at risk, no matter where it is sold or burnt.
“As leaders meet at the Pre-COP talks in Fiji this week, Pacific communities are reaffirming the importance of the 1.5C temperature limit as a survival line for humanity, and is a scientific, moral and legal obligation as affirmed by the landmark Pacific-led ICJ Advisory Opinion. The highest court in the world, and now in Australia, have been clear: it is legally imperative that all of the pollution from fossil fuel projects be considered before approving a new project.
“Now is the moment for the Australian Government, as COP31 President of Negotiations, to find the courage, leadership and grit our country is known for to chart a new course away from fossil fuels. This begins with showing leadership at home by ending new coal and gas approvals.”
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After witnessing the effects of sea-level rise in the low-lying island nation of Tuvalu, Pacific leaders on Tuesday used the pre-COP31 summit in Fiji to voice their frustration at the difficulties they have experienced in tapping the global climate finance system.
A small group of government leaders, climate negotiators and heads of development banks and climate funds took a trip to Tuvalu’s Funafuti atoll on Tuesday morning, travelling by road over land just 10-20 metres wide to visit a project that is building barriers to keep the sea from the land.
They then flew to Fiji for the pre-COP summit, where several Pacific leaders said they had been let down by the insufficient quantity, bad terms and slow speed of international finance to help them adapt to a warming climate that is bringing higher oceans, drought and more powerful storms to their shores.
“Right now, our islands are like a canoe that has been rammed by a massive foreign ship. Our canoe is taking on water, we are sinking, and what is the world’s response?” asked Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr.
“They hand us a tiny patch to cover a gaping hole,” he continued, “but the bureaucratic process just to receive that patch is so slow that the water fills the hole while we wait. Then to rebuild the vessel so that we can survive the next storm, we are offered loans, debt that adds weight to a sinking boat packaged in red tape so thick we can barely access it. And while we wait, the water continues to fill.”
Pacific leaders and Australia called again on governments to invest in the new Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), which has been designed by the Pacific Islands Forum and is seeking $500 million in investments by COP31 in November.
It has around $180 million so far, but did not receive additional pledges during the UN General Assembly in New York. The PRF aims to invest to generate annual returns which it can give to projects like water tanks for drought-hit communities.
Witnessing sea level rise
The annual pre-COP gathering is usually a low-profile technical meeting of climate negotiators. But this year, Australia – which is the president of negotiations at COP31 – partnered with the Pacific to introduce a “leaders segment” in an attempt to shine a spotlight on climate issues affecting the region.
Fourteen government leaders – from Australia, Timor-Leste, Mauritius and the Pacific – made the trip. They were joined by the European Union’s climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, the heads of the Green Climate Fund and the Asian Development Bank and former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.
On their return to Fiji, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Matthew Wale told the pre-COP leaders roundtable that the sea level rise they had witnessed was personal for him.
“Tuvalu was not just a site visit for me. I saw the story of my own saltwater people,” he said, adding that he, his daughter and his grandfather had lost their houses to sea level rise and that three-quarters of his electorate live on land that will be underwater in the next 30 years.
From the other side of the world, Antigua and Barbuda’s environment minister Michael Joseph said Tuvalu’s problems felt similar to those of his own Caribbean islands. “I saw vulnerable communities… just metres from the sea and people determined to remain on their land, preserve their culture and way of life,” he said.
A group of Fijian schoolchildren told the leaders it was not just sea level rise the Pacific struggles with but also heatwaves, droughts and storms, which worry their families and prevent them from learning.
Climate finance red-tape
Several Pacific leaders criticised the world’s leaders for not doing enough to combat climate change. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown expressed disappointment that only two non-Pacific leaders had come to the pre-COP, a fact Australian media widely picked up on to label the event a flop and question its A$20 million (US$14m) price tag.
“We’ve heard a lot of numbers these last two days,” Brown said. “Let me share one of my own. More than 50 invitations extended to world leaders… to see for themselves what high emissions are doing to our nations and our ocean – an ocean that covers nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface.”
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He called for more climate finance for the Pacific, asking “if the world is prepared to assess our suitability for climate finance, why is it not equally prepared to scrutinise whether those responsible for delivering it are meeting their obligations?”
Like Palau’s president Whipps, Naoero’s President David Adeang criticised the red tape that is hindering access to climate finance as well as a lack of money, complaining especially about “complicated procedures, heavy reporting, delays in approval and disbursement”.
Adeang added that “the way we assess vulnerability matters”, adding that it should be measured by more than income. Naoero, for example, is classified by the World Bank as high-income, restricting which climate finance it is eligible for.
Action plan to improve access
On Thursday, the Australian government will present a statement and action plan on improving access to climate finance for small island developing states and least developed countries, which it is asking other countries and organisations to endorse.
The statement addresses some of these Pacific complaints as well as acknowledging that progress has already been made on simplifying access by multilateral development banks and climate funds.
In Fiji, Asian Development Bank head Masato Kanda said his institution is “tailoring our finance and operations to island realities” because “your children and their children should be able to grow old in the countries their ancestors have called home for millennia”.
The executive director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Mafalda Duarte, said that the GCF-backed coastal adaptation project leaders visited in Tuvalu shows that “climate finance works” although – as the project took eight years to implement – “it takes time, and therefore we have no time to waste”.
Australia calls for optimism
While Pacific leaders expressed concern that the world is set to blast past its agreed 1.5C warming limit, endangering their nations, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for “optimism”. “If people think there is no hope, then they will not strive to get the change that we need,” he said.
He said that when he attended his first COP in 2005, Australia’s renewable energy target was 2%. Its target is now 82% renewable electricity by 2030.
While Albanese promoted Australia’s success at electrifying homes and businesses and rolling out renewables, he has been criticised by climate campaigners for extending the production of fossil fuels, including coal – largely for export.