The energy transition must not be used as a fresh excuse to plunder Indigenous territories, delegates at a groundbreaking global conference on phasing out fossil fuels were warned.
High oil prices and war in the Middle East have boosted the attraction of renewable technologies in many parts of the world, but the economic, security and climate benefits should not come at the expense of well-protected natural environments, Indigenous leaders said at the weekend.
They were speaking at the first world conference, in Santa Marta, Colombia, on transitioning away from fossil fuels. It aims to “create a coalition of the ambitious” and provide fresh energy to faltering global climate negotiations.
More than 50 countries, dozens of subnational governments and thousands of civil society representatives are attending the event, which has been arranged outside a UN process that has become so hamstrung by industry lobbyists that the final declaration of the most recent Cop30 in Brazil could not even mention the words “fossil fuels”.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) published research at the conference showing the vast financial support planet-heating fossil fuels continue to receive. In 2024, the report says, fossil fuels globally received $1.2tn of subsidies and other forms of support from the public purse, in contrast to the $254bn of support that went towards clean energy.
Angela Picciariello, senior researcher at the IISD, said: “Governments need to stop making the same mistakes and expecting different outcomes. When energy prices spike, the instinct is often to spend more public money on fossil fuels. But that approach is costly, hard to unwind, and leaves people exposed to the next crisis. The better option is to protect households in the short term while using public finance to scale up renewables and build more resilient energy systems over time.”
The debate in Santa Marta has been more liberated, creative and hopeful than similar previous gatherings, with input and support from a wide spectrum of international society, including Indigenous participants who spelled out how they and their lands had been adversely affected by fossil fuels.
“When extractivists move in, they don’t just destroy nature, but also our way of living,” said Luene Karipuna, an Indigenous leader in the Brazilian state of Amapá.
While endorsing the eradication of fossil fuels, several Indigenous speakers also expressed concerns that alternatives could also bring challenges to their territories because wind turbines, solar panels and electric car batteries all depend on the mining of critical minerals.
“It is not just about fossil fuels. Because after that, what is next? They will find some other reason to come after our land and minerals,” said Patricia Suárez of the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon. “We can’t cut out one problem just to open the door to another. We need to say no to fossil fuels and no to mineral extraction in the Amazon.”
Others said the discussion needed to encompass nature and health, as well as energy. “The transition should be towards standing forests and fresh water,” said Gregório Mirabal of the Kurripako Indigenous People from Venezuela. “If we don’t change this [current economic] model of death, we will be left without water, without health.”
Irene Vélez Torres, director of the Colombian National Environmental Agency, said Indigenous groups had a more central role in Santa Marta than they usually played at UN summits. They held their own forum on Sunday, from which suggestions will be fed into the main “People’s Summit” document that representatives will share at the start of high-level ministerial meetings on Tuesday.
Vélez Torres said Indigenous territories were particularly vulnerable to exploitation by outsiders, who take what they can from the land and leave only scars. “Extractivism has left deep wounds in the territories of the Indigenous communities,” she said. How to avoid or heal those wounds, she said, would be part of the discussions at Santa Marta.