Could key climate talks mark ground zero in global push to ditch fossil fuels?

L ooking out to sea from the grey sandy beaches of Santa Marta, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, it is never hard to spot evidence of the country’s thriving fossil fuel export trade. Oil tankers ride at anchor on the horizon, and sometimes, locals say, lumps of coal wash up on the shore, blown off the collier ships that carry cargos from the nearby mines. It was here, on Wednesday evening, that the Colombian government took a bold step to shift its economy – and that of the rest of the world – away from dependence on coal, gas and oil and into a new era of clean energy. With the first ever conference on “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, the host joined nearly 60 countries determined to loosen of the grip of petrostates on the world’s future. Colombia’s Irene Vélez Torres, left, greets the Dutch minister of climate and green growth, Stientje van Veldhoven. Photograph: Raúl Arboleda/AFP/ “This is the beginning of a new global climate democracy,” Irene Vélez Torres, Colombia’s environment minister and chair of the talks, said in closing remarks that celebrated a “new method” of bringing together high-ambition governments, parliamentarians and civil society groups to accelerate the decarbonisation of their economies. At this moment in history, the conference may also mark a new global divide between “ electro-democracies” and petro-dictatorships . The initiative has come at a pivotal moment in the climate fight. …