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Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.

First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels: Building Real Pathways Beyond Fossil Fuels

First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels: Building Real Pathways Beyond Fossil Fuels

We will participate in the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, convened in Santa Marta, Colombia, from the 24 to 29 of April. Hosted by the Government of Colombia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Conference will bring together governments, subnational authorities, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, academics, and other key actors to advance practical pathways for a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. 

This initiative was launched at COP30 in Belém as a response to the insufficient outcomes reached by States to effectively establish pathways towards defossilisation. In particular, it responds to the lack of meaningful, implementation-oriented agreements to give effect to the commitment established at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. Against this backdrop, the Santa Marta Conference will be the first major global summit convened by governments explicitly focused on organising the phase-out of fossil fuels, a legal duty of States as underscored by the International Court of Justice in last year’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change. It also stands out at a time when initiatives of this kind remain relatively uncommon, making the breadth of civil society participation especially notable. 

At its core, this effort led by Colombia aims to initiate a sustained process through which a coalition of committed actors can define and advance enabling pathways for a progressive phase-out of fossil fuels. The declared ambition is to move beyond political declarations and catalyse concrete action through an implementation-focused platform. It is intended to support those countries and stakeholders already willing to advance the transition by fostering collaboration, sharing experiences, and identifying actionable solutions. It is expected that the Conference will produce a report outlining concrete pathways for a just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels, which, in turn, can also inform the Roadmap being developed by the COP30 Presidency. At the same time, the extent to which the Conference will shape UNFCCC processes and national policy remains to be seen. 

 

3 Pillars 

The Conference is structured around three interconnected pillars. The first pillar focuses on overcoming economic dependence, recognising that many countries rely on fossil fuels for public revenues, employment, and broader economic activity. The second pillar addresses the transformation of both the supply and demand of fossil fuels. The third pillar centres on international cooperation and multilateralism, aiming to bridge existing gaps in governance and implementation, including limitations within the UNFCCC framework.  

Building a strong, collective global voice will be essential in this context. In the negotiations in Santa Marta, GI-ESCR will actively engage and focus on the thematic pillars to ensure economic, social, cultural and environmental rights in climate policy. Here are our positions on each of them:  

1. Overcoming dependence on fossil fuels. Fossil fuel reliance in the Global South is not a matter of choice but the result of entrenched structural constraints, including unsustainable debt burdens and unequal trade relations. Breaking this cycle requires systemic transformation: comprehensive debt relief, the provision of adequate, predictable, and non-debt-creating climate finance, and support for countries to diversify their economies and move up the value chain. This includes enabling domestic processing, industrialisation, and the development of renewable energy sectors that generate decent work, strengthen public revenues, and advance energy sovereignty. Crucially, we emphasise that tax policy is a central lever in enabling this transformation. Progressive and coordinated tax measures can both discourage fossil fuel dependence by internalising the environmental and social costs of extraction and emissions, and mobilise significant public revenues from the largest polluters to finance a just transition. In this regard, governments must urgently review and reform tax systems that continue to incentivise fossil fuel production and consumption.  

2. Transforming supply and demand. The urgency of a rapid and equitable phase-out of fossil fuel production and use requires an immediate halt to new exploration and expansion. This must be accompanied by a fundamental redirection of financial flows, from fossil fuel projects toward renewable energy systems and resilient, decentralised infrastructure. Finance is a decisive lever in enabling this shift, and addressing unjust debt is integral to unlocking transformative change. At the same time, the transition must be grounded in democratic governance and human rights, prioritising people-centred approaches over market-driven mechanisms. We reject false solutions that commodify nature or displace communities, and call for models that recognise energy, land, and natural resources as public goods, ensuring universal access, social protection, and the meaningful participation of affected communities. 

3. International cooperation and multilateralism. A just transition cannot be achieved through voluntary pledges alone, but requires strengthened, rules-based international cooperation anchored in equity and legal obligations. This entails addressing structural barriers embedded in the global economic system, including reforming or terminating investment and trade regimes that constrain states’ ability to pursue climate action and uphold human rights. There is an urgent need for a significant scale-up of unconditional, grant-based climate finance, particularly from the Global North, in line with their historical responsibilities, to support loss and damage, economic transformation, and climate-resilient development.  

 

The Santa Marta Conference could represent a significant opportunity to strengthen international cooperation and catalyse a decisive shift toward a fossil-free future grounded in science, law, and human rights. However, that will depend on whether the convening countries can move beyond rhetoric and support an implementation pathway that addresses the structural conditions sustaining fossil fuel dependence. Such a pathway would need to confront and dismantle entrenched economic dependencies on fossil fuels, while ensuring accountability for those actors, particularly in the Global North, as well as corporations and financial institutions, that have driven and benefited from the climate emergency.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.