GOVERNMENTS from around 50 countries gathered in Colombia’s Caribbean city of Santa Marta today for a summit aimed at accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels.

The April 24-29 conference, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, will bring together ministers, academics and civil society groups to discuss how to move beyond oil, gas and coal while ensuring the transition is “just, orderly and equitable,” organisers said.

The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and advocates that decades of UN climate negotiations have failed to directly address fossil fuel production, prompting the Santa Marta summit to push the issue outside formal talks.

Unlike formal UN climate negotiations, the meeting is not expected to produce binding commitments. Instead, officials say the goal is to generate a set of proposals and build coalitions of countries willing to move faster on phasing out fossil fuels.

Organisers say the gathering is intended to open space for a politically sensitive debate that has long been avoided in international climate negotiations.