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Dear Excellencies: Demonstrate What Real Climate Leadership Looks Like

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April 8, 2026

H.E. Irene Vélez Torres
Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development
Government of Colombia

H.E. Sophie Hermans
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Climate Policy
Government of The Netherlands

Dear Excellencies:

Thank you for your leadership in hosting the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (Santa Marta Conference). Your initiative is an opportunity to both address the climate crisis through progress toward the essential global transition away from fossil fuels and set a new standard for multilateral cooperation. 

While the COP is an essential vehicle for advancing climate action and holding governments accountable to their commitments, it is failing to meet its objective of fully addressing the roots of the climate crisis, thereby contributing to the need for the parallel conference you are hosting next month. To enable the global phase out of fossil fuels and other steps necessary to limit warming in line with the goals of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement and concurrent rules under international law, the COP process must be strengthened to operate at a higher level of ambition that cannot be thwarted by a few detractors.

As a complementary but separate initiative, the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels could serve as an example and set a standard for how multilateral climate convenings should be conducted. We respectfully suggest that the Santa Marta Conference model actions that would lead to better climate outcomes, advance norms, raise the bar on overall standards of climate leadership, including for COP leaders and governments, enhance the possibility of more ambitious outcomes in the future, and, if adopted by future COP presidencies and Parties, would strengthen the COP process and outcomes.

As hosts of the Santa Marta Conference, you have a unique opportunity to lead by example and set the standard that COP Presidents could follow to not continue down a road where COPs fail to advance meaningful climate action. The following critical steps could help you demonstrate what real climate leadership looks like and how meaningful action is possible via multilateral settings focused on the climate crisis. We urge you to undertake the following at the Santa Marta Conference, and to advocate for these same steps within the UNFCCC:

  1. Maintain a national climate action plan that reflects the highest possible ambition, is progressively more demanding over time, aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement, including keeping temperature rise limited to 1.5C, and upholds the State’s climate obligations under international law, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion on climate change.
  1. Lead, as you are, the implementation of the transition away from fossil fuels.
  1. Take proactive measures to prevent the fossil fuel industry and other actors whose interests are contrary to the goals of meaningful climate action that addresses the root cause of the problem – fossil fuels – from lowering ambition and blocking the outcomes needed to set the world on a path to transition away from fossil fuels. This should include ensuring your delegations not include industry representation, putting in place a robust conflict of interest policy for the Santa Marta Conference and ensuring it is adhered to in order to protect against undue influence of polluting interests, and blocking sponsorships and contracts that could present such a conflict of interest. These steps will set an example that all Parties should follow over time in all multilateral settings.
  1. Ensuring the protection of human rights and civic space, including by putting measures in place to uphold the rights of freedom of expression and assembly in the context of the Santa Marta Conference, and by advancing a stronger and more meaningful voice and participation of those most affected by the climate crisis.
  1. For any decision-making procedures at the Santa Marta Conference or any process it may launch, allowing for majority-voting if consensus is blocked.
  1. Installing a strong and clearly understood implementation ecosystem that clarifies the purpose of implementation frameworks and governance systems and ensures accountability measures and guardrails across the entire eco system. Such a system should include targets and timetables that are in line with emissions reductions science and that accounts for the financing necessary in making a just and equitable transition.

Thank you for your leadership in convening and chairing the First Conference for Transitioning Away From Fossil Fuels. We look forward to supporting your efforts in this important moment for climate action and utilizing it as a catalyst to both accelerate the global phaseout of fossil fuels and strengthen international cooperation on the climate crisis.

Sincerely,

The Climate Reality Project
Center for International Environmental Law
Earth4All
Global Witness
Transparency International