The final report produced after the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, held in Santa Marta, Colombia. The conference, co-hosted by the governments of Colombia and Netherlands, convened 57 countries and more than 1000 stakeholders to advance global commitments made under the Paris Agreement. Over the course of five days, countries and representatives from 14 groups dialogued on how to advance a just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.

ABColombia was in Santa Marta participating in these discussions, under the Third Pillar, focusing on multilateral and international cooperation to remove structural barriers to a just transition. Central to these discussions was the need to address international legal and investment frameworks that penalise climate actions, including the barriers posed by ISDS.

In their summary, the co-hosts Colombia and Netherlands note that participants identified international investment frameworks, including ISDS, as one of several legal and financial barriers that some countries face in implementing the energy transition, alongside debt burdens, fiscal constraints and limited access to finance.

Participants recognised that international investment frameworks, particularly ISDS, are increasingly being debated in the context of the energy transition. There was broad agreement that existing investment rules should not undermine governments’ ability to implement climate policies. ISDS was repeatedly cited as potential barrier to ambitious climate action, creating legal and financial risks for governments seeking to phase out fossil fuels.

While there was agreement that governments must retain the right to regulate in the public interest, stakeholder groups differed on how far reform should go. Academic institutions, trade unions and many civil society representatives argued that ISDS creates a chilling effect on climate policy through the threat of costly arbitration and called for significant reform—or, in some cases, the abolition of ISDS and coordinated withdrawal from multilateral instruments. By contrast, private sector representatives admitted that ISDS mechanisms are perceived as potential constraints on sovereign climate action but stressed the continued importance of investment protection frameworks to maintain investor confidence, while supporting governments’ rights to regulate in the public interest.