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Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of the Fos­sil Fu­el Treaty Ini­tia­tive, Alex Rafalow­icz, says the up­com­ing in­ter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence on tran­si­tion­ing away from fos­sil fu­els will mark the first time gov­ern­ments gath­er to dis­cuss in de­tail how to plan and man­age a just tran­si­tion. The event, host­ed by Co­lum­bia and the Nether­lands, is ex­pect­ed to in­clude gov­ern­ments, in­dige­nous peo­ples, civ­il so­ci­ety ob­servers, aca­d­e­mics, and trade union­ists.

Rafalow­icz ex­plained that Caribbean coun­tries have been in­vit­ed and many have shown lead­er­ship on re­lat­ed is­sues. He cit­ed the Ba­hamas, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Bar­ba­dos as ex­am­ples of states that have ad­vanced re­form of the in­ter­na­tion­al debt sys­tem and ad­dressed methane emis­sions. He said he ex­pects strong Caribbean at­ten­dance and hopes gov­ern­ments will com­mit to lim­it­ing fos­sil fu­el ex­pan­sion.

Speak­ing af­ter a re­gion­al con­ven­ing in St. Lu­cia to form the Caribbean's po­si­tion, Rafalow­icz said he hopes the voic­es of par­tic­i­pants there will be car­ried to San­ta Mar­ta, Colom­bia. He not­ed con­cerns about risks to fish­eries, ma­rine life, air qual­i­ty, and sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment. He said the San­ta Mar­ta con­fer­ence should ad­vance a new in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment with eq­ui­ty and jus­tice at its core.