50+ Nations Launch Science Panel to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

Frustrated by years of blocked progress at UN climate summits, more than 50 nations just created their own space where science leads the way.

Representatives from countries including Australia, Cambodia, and Mexico gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia this week for the first global summit focused entirely on phasing out fossil fuels. The five-day conference, which concluded yesterday, launched the Science Panel for the Global Energy Transition to advise willing nations on shifting to clean energy.

The summit emerged from frustration at last year's UN climate talks in Brazil, where oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia reportedly blocked attempts to create a roadmap for cutting fossil fuel use. Colombia and the Netherlands decided to move forward anyway, inviting only countries open to change.

"Here, you have a coalition of governments that decided they actually want to be informed by the science," says Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, an international climate law specialist at the University of Amsterdam. For scientists who've spent decades warning about climate dangers, it's a refreshing shift.

At UN climate summits, governments filter what scientific recommendations reach the public. "At the end, I think we found a smaller audience, but an audience that considers that we have something relevant to them," says Gilberto Jannuzzi, an energy transition specialist at the State University of Campinas in Brazil.

The Bright Side

This new approach gives researchers freedom to think bigger. A team of 24 scientists released a report listing 12 concrete actions nations can take to support a fossil fuel phaseout, developed with input from hundreds of scientists across multiple countries over three months.

Unlike UN reports that stay neutral, this one makes direct recommendations. The report calls for banning new fossil fuel infrastructure and ending subsidies like tax breaks that make oil, gas, and coal cheaper to produce. It also recommends financial incentives to accelerate clean energy adoption.

Frank Jotzo, a climate economist at the Australian National University who helped edit the report, explains they're not trying to replace existing UN science panels. "We're trying to give some practical policy insights" based on science, he says.

The summit proves that when some doors close, others open. While global greenhouse gas emissions continue rising, this coalition shows that countries serious about change don't have to wait for unanimous agreement to move forward.