Santa Marta, Colombia – Nearly 60 nations hailed progress in the fight to exit fossil fuels as a breakaway conference wrapped up in Colombia on Wednesday — but now face the harder work of turning words into action.

Ministers and envoys gathered in the coal port of Santa Marta in the hope of accelerating the shift away from planet-heating fossil fuels and breaking a stalemate at the U.N. climate talks.

The conference was announced last year after nations failed to include an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final deal reached at the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Brazil.

But organizers say it gained momentum after the U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran ignited a global energy crisis — underscoring the risks of reliance even as some nations looked to fossil fuels to plug supply gaps.

From tiny island states to European powers and emerging markets, nations attended the conference voluntarily after an effort to tackle fossil fuels head-on at last year's COP30 failed.

"Countries are taking steps," said Dutch…