First ever talks to ditch fossil fuels as UN deadlock deepens

First ever talks to ditch fossil fuels as UN deadlock deepens28 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMatt McGrathEnvironment correspondentGetty ImagesProtestors in London object to new oil gas fields in the UKA large group of countries including some major oil producers are meeting on Friday to plan something UN climate summits have failed to agree on - a complete move away from fossil fuels.Around 60 nations are gathering in Santa Marta, Colombia as the world warms rapidly, mainly from the use of coal, oil and gas.Countries attending account for roughly a fifth of global fossil fuel supply - including Colombia, Australia and Nigeria - but major powers including the US, China and India are not part of the talks.Progress at the annual UN COP climate meetings has slowed as decisions depend on the consent of all, giving large fossil producers an effective veto.GettyAt COP30 in Brazil, many countries felt frustrated that their wish to move faster on ending fossil fuels was thwartedAt COP30, held in Brazil last November, efforts to agree a roadmap away from fossil fuels failed as major oil producing nations wouldn't agree to the plan.Delegates say this new meeting in Colombia is not to replace the COP, but to complement it.This frustration with COPs is also being sharpened by the science, which suggests the chance to keep warming to safer levels - and avoid the most damaging impacts - is slipping away.Scientists say once warming passes 1.5C, dangerous impacts become more likely and harder to reverse."We are inevitably going to crash through the 1.5C limit within the next three to five years," Prof Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told BBC News."Breaking through 1.5C means we enter a far more dangerous world - with more frequent and intense droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves - and we are already approaching critical tipping points in major Earth systems."Getty ImagesElectric vehicle sales...