60-Nation Santa Marta Summit Launches First Stand-Alone Fossil Fuel Phase-Out Forum

Like the 1973 oil-shock that spurred the IEA’s birth, the current Iran-war price spike has catalysed a break-away bloc—echoing the 1944 Bretton Woods gathering that built parallel monetary rules when existing systems stalled. After three decades in which the UNFCCC dodged the words “fossil fuels” (only grudgingly noting them at COP28 in 2023), Santa Marta signals a systemic shift: diplomacy is moving from universal consensus to coalitions of the willing. Whether this forum evolves into a treaty (as the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation negotiations did after early ad-hoc meetings) or fizzles like the 2009 Copenhagen Accord depends on financing for the global South and on whether large emitters—absent this week—eventually join. On a 100-year arc, this could mark the institutional birth of the post-oil order—paralleling the early 20th-century transition from coal to oil—yet its non-binding nature means it may also be remembered as another well-intentioned but toothless talk shop if concrete mechanisms and capital do not materialise.