A coal port is a curious location to plot the end of fossil fuels, but the Colombian city of Santa Marta has long been a contested space. It might actually be the perfect spot to face the challenge clearly and chart a cleaner, safer future. 

There’s certainly a large dose of the magical realism and dramatic irony that Latin Americans plumb better than any others in the decision to host diplomats, ministers and a sweeping cross-section of humanity for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels — all within earshot of the Carbosan coal terminal.

It’s right there in the name after all. Carbon. Great piles of it. Even if the conference rooms block the grinding sound of conveyors loading bulk carriers in the port, it’s all on full display out the window.

But profound tensions are nothing new for Santa Marta. It is the oldest colonial city in South America, founded by conquistadors in the early 1500s to secure control over the rumoured gold wealth of the Indigenous Tayrona peoples. Extractivist suffering continued on through the dark era of the United Fruit Company and the massacres of workers demanding decent conditions. Today, there is shattering poverty alongside seaview hotels for holiday goers. The region inspired the setting for One Hundred Years of Solitude and hospiced the final days of the greatest fighter for South American independence. The battle between fossil fuels and clean energy is almost a prosaic problem for this part of the world. 

Look out towards what the great Colombian journalist and author, Gabriel García Márquez, called the "most beautiful bay in America," and families play on idyllic beaches. Just offshore, rusting carriers ply their trade in carbon. Over there, a picturesque marina. A few hundred metres farther, the black gantries of the Carbosan terminal fill ship after ship with sooty loads.

Turn from views of the Caribbean to rooftops in the city and another future is emerging. Workers, braving the midday heat, installing solar panels — thousands of points turned towards the light. 

Colombia is lagging in the solar revolution, as are most of the Americas. But the current administration of Gustavo Petro recently launched Colombia Solar, a program aiming to provide 1.3 million low-income households with rooftop photovoltaic systems by 2030, replacing traditional energy subsidies with solar democracy.

And look out there, back at sea, something out of place threading between the coal carriers — the bright green circle emblazoned on the Green Pioneer, the world’s first ocean-going vessel powered by carbon-free fuel.

Splashed across the Green Pioneer is its mission: “Leading the Way to Real Zero.” The ship is a 246-foot physical demonstration that the Santa Marta fossil fuel conference is not an idealistic project. Alternatives to fossil fuels are here and work even for business on a transoceanic scale. The ship was, once, a supply vessel for the oil and gas industry. Two of its engines were converted to run on ammonia, produced by combining hydrogen from renewable-powered water electrolysis with nitrogen separated from the air. 

It was commissioned by the maverick mining magnate, Andrew Forrest, who made his billions with the company Fortescue in one of the toughest and grittiest of businesses — hard rock mining. If ever there was a business that understands big machines, remote worksites and transport over vast distances, it’s the miners. But Forrest insists even the heaviest of industries can and must transition to “real zero.” 

Net-zero, by contrast, is a “con,” he says. It is a “proven fantasy,” because governments and businesses have used it to dodge the fundamental reckoning: giving up fossil fuels altogether. “Set clear fossil fuel phase-out deadlines and investment will surge. Keep dithering, and we will keep falling behind,” Forrest said in a statement as the Green Pioneer docked.

The Green Pioneer was dispatched to Santa Marta as a flagship for the business end of the fossil fuel conference. But the business world is just one among a kaleidoscope of worlds gathering to write roadmaps to climate sanity.

If you can think of a dimension of human life, it is probably here. Governments and diplomats hog much of the attention and understandably so: 60 countries are converging on Santa Marta, almost one-third of the world’s roster — and the number keeps climbing. Five more asked to come since last week. They have modestly tagged their two days, the “High Level Segment,” but there is nothing modest about the timing. 

The ministers and government representatives are convening their summit against the backdrop of the second global fossil fuel shock in four years. The war in Iran has supercharged demand for electrification and renewable energy at a time when the technology to leapfrog the fossil fuel economy is ever cheaper and more widely available.

The conference is not so much a summit as a summit of summits. Faith communities have booked a full day, to be livestreamed by the Diocese of Santa Marta. The city’s cathedral was the original resting place of the legendary independence fighter and former president of Gran Colombia, Simón Bolívar (“El Libertador”).

Indigenous communities and associations from around the globe are gathering at the invitation of the Katanzama, a community of the Arhuaco people living near the "Corazón del Mundo" (Heart of the World). To open the conference, the local Indigenous delegation pressed all representatives of all countries to reconnect with that heart, “to reseed it, to regrow it and to reforest our hearts.”

Scientists and academics of all stripes are meeting. An international team of eminent scientists have already given governments a preliminary set of actions, including recommendations like “halting all new fossil fuel expansion,” and “reject[ing] gas as a bridging fuel.”

“The question is not if we will phase out fossil fuels,” says Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "The only question is: will we be too late?"

Economists are grappling with crucial obstacles like the “debt trap” in the developing world. Colombia is a prime example. The country has admirably stopped new licences for fossil fuel exploration. But Colombia is hooked to fossil fuel revenues to service its public debt. It’s a massive problem for countries in the Global South; some countries even literally make debt payments in barrels of oil. The cycle is described as the “fossil fuel-debt trap” in a recent report from the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. 

“What we have to start understanding is that both fossil fuels and debt are actually extractions from the Global South,” said Amiera Sawas, one of the report’s authors and head of research and policy at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. “Many countries are paying more in debt servicing than they are getting in climate finance.” 

A global treaty would help address the coordination problems and fossil-fueled debt traps. A broad coalition of countries, subnational governments, scientists, Indigenous peoples and civil society is in Santa Marta calling for more countries to join in developing a fossil fuel treaty as a key outcome of the summit.

Youth organizations are here too, bringing that characteristic combination of excitement and the raw anger of betrayal. And health professionals have joined forces in the Global Climate and Health Alliance, a consortium of over 250 health organizations. “Fossil fuel subsidies channel public money into an industry that drives disease and premature deaths and yet governments continue to fund it,” said Jess Beagley, policy lead at the Global Climate and Health Alliance.

The health professionals are pressing for fossil-fuel addiction to be tackled like other products whose impacts became clear over time. “Governments gathering in Santa Marta must resolve to revoke the social licence granted to the fossil fuel industry, as was achieved with tobacco control, by banning ads for dangerous, health-harming fossil fuels, ending sponsorship of organizations and events and establishing clear conflict of interest rules,” says the Alliance’s Shweta Narayan.

The list goes on. There are meetings of multilateral bankers, development finance staff and central bank types. Union leaders are here — even the coal workers have come to wrestle with the contradictions between current jobs and future safety.

All these dimensions of human life, finally grappling openly with the tragic contradictions of the carbon era: the indisputable wealth, the extractive suffering, the overheating planet. Santa Marta embodies it all in microcosm. Maybe — just maybe — the city will impart some of its tough realism along with a dusting of magic to begin charting a better course forward.

© National Observer