Sawt Falasteen - Nations backing fossil fuel exit 'a new power': conference host Colombia

Colombia's Environment Minister Irene Velez Torres has been prominent as host of this breakaway climate conference, which has drawn nations wanting to accelerate the fossil fuel phaseout despite the stalemate in the UN-led "COP" summits.

These countries represent "a new power", said Velez Torres, a former mining and energy minister whose own country is navigating its exit from coal and oil.

Major fossil fuel producers are joining the first-of-its-kind talks but the biggest greenhouse gas emitters -- including the United States, China and Russia -- are skipping the event.

AFP interviewed Velez Torres ahead of the high-level talks between ministers and climate envoys on April 28-29 in the Caribbean port town of Santa Marta:

Today, it is worth focusing on the more than 50 countries that are here, representing almost 50 percent of the global population, including consumer countries, producer countries and vulnerable countries of the Global South and North.

In that sense, we are a new power today."

"On the contrary, we need a multilateralism that is more deeply rooted in the people and not just in governments, biases or economic lobbying. We need new alignments, new alliances."

"Another is the consensus methodology, which has resulted in a de facto veto against countries like Colombia that want more ambitious discussions on decisions particularly related to fossil fuels.

"And on the other hand, there is a methodological issue that has limited the inclusion of voices from civil society."

"This report will be submitted to the COP30 (presidency) and COP31 (presidency) as one input to the global roadmap for moving away from fossil fuels."

"The year 2025 showed, for the first time, that there were more exports in terms of remittances and foreign exchange from coffee versus coal. And 2025 was also the first year in which Colombia had more energy from non-conventional renewables, particularly solar, than from coal."

N.AbuHussein--SF-PST