Civ­il so­ci­ety groups in the Caribbean are be­ing urged to strength­en their pres­ence in re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al dis­cus­sions on the tran­si­tion away from fos­sil fu­els.

Car­oli­na Sanchez, spokesper­son for the Fos­sil-Free Wider Caribbean Net­work, said the goal of a re­gion­al gath­er­ing in Saint Lu­cia ear­li­er this month was to bring more or­gan­i­sa­tions in­to a grow­ing coali­tion push­ing for a shift in glob­al en­er­gy pol­i­cy.

The meet­ing took place ahead of the first in­ter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence fo­cused on tran­si­tion­ing away from fos­sil fu­els, sched­uled for April in San­ta Mar­ta, Colom­bia.