ByAlan Ohnsman,
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elcome back to Current Climate. As U.S. president, Donald Trump hasn’t been a friend of clean energy, pushing federal agencies to prioritize oil, gas and coal projects, kill or stall offshore wind farms and slow-walk approvals of solar and wind installations on public land. But as his war in Iran stretches on and oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled, he’s inadvertently accelerated a global shift away from fossil fuels.
With global energy prices spiking, the first-ever international Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels convened last week in Santa Marta, Colombia, to begin charting a path toward making that a reality. Nearly 60 countries, as well as NGOs, trade unions, representatives of Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent, private companies, development banks, social movements and subnational governments participated. The U.S. government, which pulled out of the United Nations Climate Accords last year with an executive order from Trump, wasn’t there.
