As the Iran War drives up prices, nations meet to discuss fossil-fuel exit.

This week, around 60 countries, including Brazil and Germany, Canada and Nigeria, will meet to discuss the phasing-out of fossil fuels. The Iran War has thrown global oil and gas prices into chaos and sent them soaring.

Santa Marta's gathering of officials and ministers will begin on Tuesday. The focus of the meeting is on practical measures to move economies away from fossil-fuels. It won't be on setting global targets like those agreed at U.N. Climate Summits.

"We are not negotiating goals, we are not negotiating obligations." Stientje Van Veldhoven is the climate minister of the Netherlands which co-organises the meeting with Colombia.

She said that the governments will discuss what "financial instruments, regulatory incentives, and planning instruments" they need to start a phase-out.

The discussions will also cover how to reform fossil fuel subsidies and create conditions to encourage industries to switch to electricity from gas.

China and the U.S., the two biggest polluters in the world, are conspicuously absent from the meeting. Saudi Arabia, along with other major Middle Eastern producers of oil and gas, will not be attending. Many countries are heavily dependent on imports of oil and gas. Asian economies have been hit by fuel shortages and European countries face rising energy costs.

Van Veldhoven stated that the energy crisis has reinforced the need to phase out oil and natural gas in order to "boost economic and energy security and not only to combat climate change."

She said, "This war in?the Middle East has ramifications around the globe because of our dependence on fossil fuels." The less dependent you are on fossil fuels, the more vulnerable you will be.

The meeting also reflects frustration on the part of some governments over the?slow pace at which annual U.N. Climate talks are progressing, where nearly 200 nations must reach consensus to make decisions. At the COP28 summit in 2023, countries agreed to move away from fossil fuels. However, subsequent COP'meetings did little to further this pledge. Countries like Saudi Arabia blocked recent proposals that targeted fossil fuels.

Climate change is primarily caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. Reporting by Kate Abnett. Mark Potter (Editing)

(source: Reuters)