ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Countries are gathering in Santa Marta, Colombia, early next week for the first international conference on how to transition away from oil, gas and coal. Burning fossil fuels like these is the primary driver of climate change. NPR's Julia Simon is in Colombia for these talks and joins us now, Hey, Julia.
JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: Hello, Rob.
SCHMITZ: So, Julia, why is Colombia taking the lead on hosting this?
SIMON: Well, Colombia is an oil, gas and coal producer, but three years ago, the country pledged to stop approving exploration contracts for oil, gas and coal. And Colombia is co-hosting this conference with the Netherlands, the birthplace of oil giant Shell. So both countries - they're not strangers to fossil fuels.
SCHMITZ: Got it. So these discussions come after March, which was one of the hottest months globally on record. So I guess this is really good timing.
SIMON: At this point, it's a good time to talk about climate change anytime because...
SCHMITZ: True.
SIMON: It's happening. There have been heat records falling left and right. But, Rob, also there's the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran that's upending energy markets. That's led to shortages of oil, natural gas, jet fuel.
SCHMITZ: And of course, fossil fuels play a big role with both of these crises.
SIMON: Yeah, burning oil, gas and coal - it's the single biggest driver of climate change. And these countries that rely on fossil fuel imports right now, they're in trouble with the energy crisis from the war in Iran. So the countries at this new conference feel a real urgency to transition away from fossil fuels.
SCHMITZ: I mean, hold on for one sec, though. I thought we had a conference where countries came together each year to tackle climate change. I've been to one of them. It's called the U.N. Climate Conference. It's also called Conference Of Parties, or COP. Don't we already have this infrastructure?
SIMON: Yes, we already have a climate conference, the U.N. Climate Conference. But actually, this new conference grew out of frustration with the U.N. Climate Conference. That's what some countries and climate experts told me. Those U.N. Climate Conferences, Rob, they've been around for 30 years. They're consensus-based, so all the countries have to come to an agreement.
SCHMITZ: Right.
SIMON: But Leo Roberts of the climate nonprofit E3G, he says...
LEO ROBERTS: But it's just very, very difficult to get all countries to agree on something.
SIMON: Yeah, and the main thing countries have not agreed on is how to transition away from fossil fuels.
SCHMITZ: So out with the old conference, in with the new, I guess. I mean, it was at the U.N. conference in Brazil last year that Colombia and the Netherlands announced this new conference. So what else makes this conference different?
SIMON: Yeah, I think the best analogy here is that tackling climate change is like a big school group project. And this conference, it's the students who are very serious about acing the project, getting an A, more than 50 countries who want to find a way forward to tackle the main driver of climate change, which is fossil fuels. Nikki Reisch at the Center for International Environmental Law calls this the coalition of the doers.
NIKKI REISCH: We finally have a forum where fossil fuels are really the main conversation, and the task is really clear. It's not to debate whether to phase out fossil fuels but to determine how to do it.
SIMON: And at this conference in Colombia, you do have fossil fuel producers participating. In addition to Colombia, you have Canada, Mexico, Australia and Nigeria.
SCHMITZ: You know, so this conference starts next Tuesday. What's on the agenda?
SIMON: A big topic is money - how to move things like subsidies for gasoline and diesel to renewable energy and batteries. And they're going to talk about how to potentially make all of this legally binding.
SCHMITZ: Wow. That's NPR's Julia Simon in Colombia. Look forward to your reporting from this conference. Thanks, Julia.
SIMON: Thank you, Rob. Looking forward.
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