The first International Conference on Energy Transition for the Elimination of Fossil Fuels, held in Santa Marta, Colombia, sparked an alliance to promote the energy transition. Delegations from 50 countries, along with representatives of NGOs, civil society, and members of various Christian churches and religious denominations, discussed from April 24 to 29, 2026 on how to achieve an ecological transition without relying on fossil fuels.
Among the participants, our confrere Fr. Alberto Franco Giraldo CSsR, a Colombian Redemptorist religious and head of Churches and Mining in Colombia, clarified to the international press: “Solutions cannot come from the same system that generates crises.”
Why in Colombia?
It’s no coincidence that Colombia, and specifically Santa Marta, was chosen as the venue for this first and historic summit. The city, located north of the capital, Bogotá, has over time become the main hub for coal exports to all of South America. Meanwhile, Colombia’s economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and is desperately seeking an alternative.
Father Alberto Franco Giraldo, a Colombian Redemptorist and head of Iglesias y Minería in Colombia—an ecumenical network that seeks to address the challenges posed by the impacts and violations of socio-environmental rights caused by mining activities—declared to international and Vatican media the importance of the meeting and the development of key concepts:
First, the solutions cannot come from the same system that generates the crises. Second, the solutions cannot be found in “green businesses” that seek only to modify operations without addressing the causes of the crisis and without taking responsibility for their actions and decisions. And second, there can be no energy transition without climate justice and social justice, without listening to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor. Finally, the extractivist model and logic that created the problem cannot be part of the solution. The change needed to resolve the crisis will not be possible without social, cultural, and spiritual transformations.
The crisis has rapidly worsened due to the war situations that the world is currently experiencing.
The “Churches and Mines” network warned that the arms race, the increase in wars—in Ukraine and the Middle East in particular—as well as the unbridled extraction of critical minerals and rare earths are today the main cause of the accelerated destruction of nature.
Fr. Alberto Franco Giraldo – in statements to Vatican News – indicates those directly responsible: «Financial capital, multinationals, governments of the global North, the small elites of the global South. Who want to preserve the capital and privileges accumulated over the course of history through wars, violence and blackmail».
However, our confrere offers an alternative: “Local indigenous communities are demonstrating that a true ecological transition relies on diversified and environmentally friendly food production; autonomous energy, care for water and forests, and a low carbon footprint. These alternatives must be given visibility, supported financially and technically, and fair exchange networks must be created. But, above all, we must recognize and value the spirituality of indigenous communities in relation to our Mother Earth.”
(Scala News / Vatican News)
