First-Ever Country-Level Fossil Fuel Phase-out Talks Draw 57 Nations; RAN and Partners Contribute to Landmark Recognition of Financial System Reform in Summit Outcomes
SANTA MARTA, Colombia: The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) joined a broad coalition of international partners at the world’s first country-level summit on fossil fuel phase-out pathways, held in late April in Santa Marta, Colombia. The historic conference brought together ministers and envoys from 57 nations alongside regional governments, Indigenous Peoples, civil society leaders, and scientists. Among its landmark outcomes, the summit produced explicit recognition of the financial sector’s role in perpetuating the fossil fuel economy, a result that RAN and its partners had worked alongside many stakeholders to bring to the fore.
Convened amid the second major fossil fuel crisis in five years, the Santa Marta summit marked a turning point in global climate diplomacy. It reflected growing recognition among governments and civil society that fossil fuels are not only driving climate breakdown, but also fueling economic volatility, geopolitical instability, and serious human rights and health harms.
A Collaborative Strategy to Elevate Financial Reform
Working alongside campaigning finance organizations and Indigenous-centered groups, RAN and its partners pursued a five-part strategy to ensure financial sector reform was treated as a central pillar of the global fossil fuel phase-out agenda. Together, they published a joint policy brief, hosted a pre-conference webinar, organized a marquee on-the-ground event, submitted formal recommendations to the conference, and simultaneously submitted the policy paper to the COP30 Presidency’s Roadmap for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels.
The policy brief, titled “Financing a Fossil-Free Future: A Roadmap for Realigning Public and Private Finance with a Just and Managed Fossil Fuel Phase Out,” was developed jointly by RAN, BankTrack, Stand.Earth, Urgewald, Amazon Watch, Friends of the Earth US, and Recommon. It traces how financing enables fossil fuel expansion at every stage and sets out shared policy recommendations across three areas: macroprudential and financial regulatory reform; government policies to eliminate public fossil fuel subsidies; and ensuring that finance aligns with just transition principles, human rights, and ecological integrity.
Centering Indigenous Voices and Leadership
A core commitment of the coalition’s engagement was ensuring that Indigenous Peoples from the Amazon were not only present but central to the summit’s proceedings. RAN coordinated with Amazon Watch and other Indigenous-centered organizations to support a $15,000 USD community action grant, allocated between an Indigenous delegation from Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia and a delegation coordinated by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
RAN and eight partners co-hosted an event titled “Financial Roadmaps towards a Just Phaseout and a Fossil-Free Amazon,” where parliamentary lawmakers delivered remarks alongside Amazonian Indigenous leaders and NGO representatives. Drawing an estimated 80 to 90 attendees, the event featured testimonials from Olivia Bisa Tirko, President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, and Luene Karipuna, Coordinadora Executiva of APOIANP, among others. The speaker lineup included six members of parliament and four Indigenous leaders representing communities from across the Amazon basin in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil.
Summit Outcomes Reflect Broad Civil Society Priorities
The Santa Marta summit’s formal outcomes included language that civil society, including RAN and its partners, had long advocated for alongside many other voices. The People’s Summit Declaration named the private sector, including commercial and private banks, insurers, private retirement funds, asset managers, private equity firms, and venture capital, as major enablers of fossil fuel production and expansion. It called for private investments in energy systems to be regulated and directed toward a just transition.
The Conference Co-Chairs’ Key Takeaways Report identified the dependence of the financial architecture on fossil fuels as a key barrier to transition. It also recognized central banks as relevant actors for managing transition-related financial stability risks, a framing that is often absent from major international climate conference outcomes and that RAN and its partners had specifically highlighted in their submissions.
These outcomes reflect the collective efforts of governments, civil society organizations, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and policymakers who participated in the Santa Marta process.
Looking Ahead to COP30 and the Next Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuel (TAFF) Conference in 2027
The Santa Marta summit concluded with a commitment to continue the work, including a follow-up conference already announced for 2027 in Tuvalu. Three workstreams were established to advance progress ahead of the next gathering, one of which is specifically dedicated to macroeconomic dependencies and financial architecture.
RAN and its partners will continue advocating for the financing brief’s recommendations to be incorporated into COP30 implementation plans. They also plan to engage with the newly announced Santa Marta Financial Stability Group, an academic body on central banks that emerged from the summit process, and to push for the financial architecture workstream to adopt a broader lens that includes the banking sector, other private sector actors, and the government regulations needed to manage private sector climate risk.
“There can be no transitioning away from coal, oil and gas unless we confront how entangled the global financial system has become with fossil fuels.” – Rainforest Action Network