Colombia’s outgoing president Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and the country’s first leftist leader, came to power in 2022. He promised something few leaders of fossil fuel-producing countries have seriously attempted: to reduce his country’s dependence on oil, gas and coal.

Together with his vice-president Francia Márquez, a former environmental activist, Petro put together an ambitious plan to make Colombia less dependent on resource extraction. Instead, the focus was on economic diversification, renewable energy, greater democratic control over energy systems and environmental protection. With declining reserves of oil and gas, and growing costs of inaction on climate change, reducing dependence on fossil fuels has become increasingly urgent.

Four years on, as Petro prepares to leave office having served the maximum single term allowed under Colombian law, the results are mixed. His government made important progress, particularly in renewable and community energy. But many of its most ambitious reforms were undermined by political opposition, institutional inertia and the continuing importance of fossil fuel revenues.

That experience matters far beyond Colombia. Across the global south, governments face a growing debate over whether fossil fuel-producing countries should continue to extract resources to fund development and the transition to low-carbon energy, or begin moving away from extractive models altogether. Colombia has provided one of the clearest........

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