[Correspondence] Health should be key to transitioning away from fossil fuels

AI Summary

The conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels held in Santa Marta, Colombia, brought together 57 nations to discuss an equitable transition from fossil fuel dependence. The final report emphasizes the significant health and economic benefits of phasing out fossil fuels globally, highlighting the disproportionate health burdens on vulnerable communities.

The first conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (Santa Marta, Colombia; April, 2026), co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, convened representatives from 57 nations to advance a just, orderly, and equitable transition. The final report from the conference makes a powerful argument for the rapid global phase-out of fossil fuels.1 Regrettably, the report overlooks the extraordinary health and health–economic benefits of doing so. Fossil fuels harm health across their full lifecycle—ie, from extraction to processing, transport, combustion, and waste—and disproportionately burden the most vulnerable communities, widening global inequities.