Colombia has positioned itself as a leader of the global push to extinguish fossil fuels, but its own transition must defy internal threats.
When Gustavo Petro said he would replace Colombia’s fossil fuel exports with avocados in 2018, his pledge was largely met with derision – and memes. Eight years on, Petro is president, and Colombia just hosted the inaugural international conference on phasing out fossil fuels. It took place in Santa Marta, a coastal city on the Caribbean sea with an important coal export industry. Choosing this location was a bold statement to the world: Colombia is serious about the energy transition.
The conference, which happened outside of the UNFCCC process, was not set up to extract binding commitments from the 57 nations present. Instead, it ended with governments being urged to draw up national phaseout roadmaps. The announcement of a second instalment next year in Tuvalu, with co-hosting support provided by Ireland, was met with applause.
For Colombia, its hosting of the conference as a “coalition of the willing” is a continuation of a policy goal; as part of his presidential campaign in 2022, Petro pledged to halt the issuing of new oil and gas exploration licences.
In one way, Colombia has an advantage over most countries represented at Santa Marta, because it only generates a third of its electricity from fossil fuels. The biggest share comes from hydropower, supported by smaller amounts from biofuels, solar and wind. However, renewables only deliver a quarter of Colombia’s overall energy demand. And domestic demand for gas is rising; up to a quarter could come from imports this year.
With its high-profile commitments and status as the first host of the Transition Away conference, Colombia has placed itself at the forefront of the global phaseout agenda. As such, its own progress in weaning itself off coal, oil and gas will be watched closely, say experts. Even as a looming presidential election threatens to throw a spanner in the works.
Colombian ambition
While there is resistance to new renewable energy projects – particularly wind – in some Colombian communities, experts tell Dialogue Earth they are generally viewed positively. Colombia’s minister for the environment and sustainable development, Irene Vélez Torres, is also pitching phaseout as a measure to support national energy independence and sovereignty. Such arguments have become increasingly prominent since the Gulf conflict began.
In the lead-up to Santa Marta, the Colombian government announced a range of new environmental measures to signal its momentum. The Ministry of Environment published a draft roadmap for a national fossil fuel phaseout. It sets out ways in which the country could cut fossil fuel demand by 90% through rapid deployment of solar and wind, widespread electrification, as well as investments in energy efficiency and demand-side management.
In November, the government announced it would no longer approve new hydrocarbon or mining projects in the country’s Amazon region, which accounts for 42% of national territory. The concept of “fossil free zones” – areas of significance for their ecology, biodiversity or culture that are placed under protection from exploration – was discussed in Santa Marta.
Andrés Gómez, the Latin American coordinator of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, says Colombia’s commitment was an important “demonstration of political will”.
Realising this commitment, however, may prove more difficult, as previous attempts to protect the Amazon have shown. Weak enforcement, for example, hampers such efforts.
Indigenous groups are strongly in favour of the move. Oswaldo Muca, general coordinator of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon (Opiac), says fossil fuels threaten these communities’ way of life and the ecosystems they have protected for thousands of years. But he warns the transition must include Indigenous peoples as full partners in decision-making: “For the transition to be truly just, it must not reproduce the same models of extractivism, and the social and environmental impacts of the fossil fuel industry.”
Fossil fuel dependence
However, Colombia’s key problem is disentangling its existing economic dependence on fossil fuel exports. In particular, coal and oil contribute 10% of its GDP. As an indication of the economic risks the country is being exposed to, Petro’s decision to halt oil and gas exploration led to Colombia’s credit rating being downgraded in 2024.
Colombia is sixth in the world for coal exports, and exports the most of any nation in Central and South America. Nearly all of it comes from the northern regions of La Guajira and Cesar. Colombia is also a significant oil exporter.
The country is moving away from coal but that is largely in response to international markets, rather than an intentional exit plan. Traditional destinations for its coal exports in Europe and the US are drying up, and its attempt to pivot towards Asia is becoming complicated by high transport costs and competition.
“It’s very chaotic,” says Paola Yanguas, a transitions researcher at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences’ (ZHAW) Institute for Sustainable Development. “It’s creating a lot of social disruption in fossil fuel-dependent regions.”
Such disruption was evident when the Anglo-Swiss mining giant Glencore, operating through its Colombian subsidiary Prodeco, abruptly closed two mines during the Covid-19 pandemic. The shuttering of La Jagua and Calenturitas in Cesar led to the loss of 5,000 related jobs in the nearby town of La Jagua de Ibirico.
In February 2025, Colombia’s constitutional court ruled mine closure plans must involve the local community and secure their agreement before being finalised.
This is an indication of the complexities of unravelling the fossil fuel relationship. But there have been attempts to soften the blow. The University of Magdalena in Santa Marta ran a training programme to help selected former coal workers transition to clean energy consultancy work. “But when you look at the low-level miners, it’s really hard for them,” explains Yanguas. “There’s not much they can do.”
It is not just formal coal mining jobs that are affected. Yanguas points out that a whole informal economy is built around a coal mine, from food services to sex work, and those people have no protection at all. “Imagine in Germany, taking out the whole car industry?” posits Yanguas. “It has a domino effect, with many waves of impacts that are related.”
Diversification
In January, the regional environmental authority of La Guajira rejected a permit application from a mining company. “This means indeed we are seeing the closure of the expansion frontier of coal in Colombia,” says Yanguas. “With most-large scale mining titles ending in 2034, the question of economic diversification, especially in Cesar and Guajira, is more urgent than ever.”
There is recognition that the country needs to diversify. Speaking at the launch of the Santa Marta conference, Torres said the country has strengthened other sectors including food production and processing. “We have been able to show how this decision [to stop exploration] is feasible,” she said. The stress of the fiscal impact is still huge, she admitted, and the process was not easy, “but we have been consistent with science and with peoples”.
Torres said Colombia had also embraced tourism, branding itself as the “Country of Beauty” and leaning hard on its famed biodiversity. The sector generated a record USD 11.17 billion in 2025, compared to USD 17.4 billion from coal, oil and gas exports. But it is unlikely to completely offset the economic impacts of coal’s decline.
Colombia’s draft roadmap suggests investments in green hydrogen, biofuels and critical mineral extraction as “key business opportunities … where Colombia holds significant competitive advantage”.
The country certainly has potential to shift extraction from fossil fuels to minerals for critical clean technologies. It is exploring the potential for copper, nickel, graphite and rare earth elements.
But experts say mining expansion could perpetuate the same socio-economic inequalities as fossil fuels. Human rights abuses have been alleged in relation to mines in Colombia, according to the Business and Human Rights Centre, an NGO headquartered in England.
Yanguas says people and communities need to be properly included in the process to avoid this outcome.
‘We are here to help’
These sentiments were echoed over five days in Santa Marta. Indigenous leaders, like Muca, warned delegates that the energy transition cannot be used as an excuse to “plunder” Indigenous lands.
The conference also gave communities a chance to have their own say, with a space in which to speak before state delegations during its high-level portion, a broad “People’s Summit” and a specific summit for Indigenous peoples. There was also a spirited march through the city that culminated with a rally in the city’s Plaza de Bolivar.
While Colombia has now established itself as a leader of the energy transition, its domestic phaseout could soon be under pressure. In just a few weeks’ time, Petro’s four-year presidential term will end. His approach to shifting the economy has been criticised by some of his opponents, with at least one candidate pledging to “reactivate” fossil fuel extraction and promote fracking.
Speaking at an event in Santa Marta, Colombia’s former president Juan Manuel Santos urged political candidates to “think long-term”, adding: “the responsible politicians are the ones that sometimes take unpopular decisions, but correct decisions.”
In Santa Marta, the spectre of elections that threaten to derail progress could not dampen the atmosphere. In attendance was a young Colombian anti-fracking activist named Yuvelis Morales Blanco, whose voice has been amplified since winning a Goldman Environmental Prize in April. She said civil society is ready to show that a just and territorial transition is possible: “We are here to help.”
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