Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels: Envisioning the Transformation of the World

"The transition away from fossil fuels is not a matter of ideology. It is a matter of survival, of justice, of fidelity to the very ground of our being." 

– Multi-faith Call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

Special to United Methodist Insight | May 6, 2026

Faith groups from around the world were a strong presence in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the end of April during the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. They included a delegation from the World Council of Churches (WCC), which helped draft the above declaration.

Other faith organizations present in Santa Marta included Laudito Si and many other Catholic organizations, Anglicans, Christian Aid, Caritas International, ACT Alliance, Faiths for a Fossil Free Future, and many more. Also attending was Bishop Luis Andrés Caicedo Guayara of the Methodist Church of Colombia. According to Green Faith, “Spanning Catholic and Protestant, Buddhist, Indigenous, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Baha’i and other religious organizations and networks – from the local to the global – the groups called for an immediate end to new fossil fuel development, an equitable phase-out of existing coal, oil and gas production, and a fair and inclusive shift to renewable energy, leaving no worker, community, or country behind.”

The Summit itself was hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands and attended by representatives of over 60 nations, along with civil society organizations. It was initiated at COP 30 by nations and climate activists disillusioned by the refusal of international climate conferences to address the elephant in the room: fossil fuels. The goal of the organizers of the Santa Marta Conference was to move from incremental pledges to concrete action, to strengthen multilateral cooperation to address the threat of climate change by strengthening support for the Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty. Their ongoing work is to create a practical roadmap for a fast and fair phaseout of fossil fuels and a just transition to a clean-energy future.

Science tells us that there must be a transition away from fossil fuels in the direction of renewables if humanity is to avert runaway climate change.  Yet many people find it easier to imagine a dystopian future or the end of the world than to imagine a world without fossil fuels. This should not be true for United Methodists.

Indeed, our primary strength in responding to the existential threat of climate change may be our Wesleyan faith in the power of God to bring about both personal and social transformation. Scripture (Romans 12:2) calls us to a life of ongoing renewal: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds…” Wesleyan tradition points us toward recognizing that God is “omnipresent” and revealed through creation, that “there is no holiness besides social holiness,” and that “the world is our parish.” Reason acknowledges evidence-based science, including climate science. Experience enables us to recognize the transformative power of God at work in our lives and in and through all things. To be faithful to our mission to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” we are called to believe and proclaim that the transformation of the world is possible.

Rationale for Phasing Out Fossil Fuels

The main rationale for phasing out fossil fuels is that they are the primary cause of climate change, which is harming millions globally through rapidly rising global temperatures and weather-related disasters that are becoming more frequent and extreme. Hit especially hard are marginalized countries, communities, and people most vulnerable to these climate extremes, which will intensify and expand into the future.  The stakes couldn’t be higher.

In 1992 I was part of the United Methodist delegation to Rio de Janeiro during the UN Conference on Environment and Development, where the Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed by President George W. Bush and later ratified by the US Senate. Although international climate conferences have been held ever since, both greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures have risen dramatically. Over 60 percent of emissions have been released since that time, more than doubling the burden of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, average global temperatures are now hovering around the1.5 ͦ C limit of total warming set and agreed to at the 2015 COP 21 Paris Agreement, to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Scientists are telling us that to preserve a habitable planet we must phase out fossil fuels.

Current events highlight the extremity of our global situation. “No blood for oil” has been a slogan for decades, but today the quiet part is being said out loud as wars for the domination of global oil supplies are waged without any credible excuse. The chaos, economic and political disruption, and death caused by our fossil-fuel driven global system are clear for all to see. In addition to the US military being the largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases, these wars over energy have contributed immeasurably to climate change. Nevertheless, even as the cost of oil and gas rises around the world, diminishing and endangering people’s lives, fossil fuel corporations are making a killing. This crisis is convincing many to support a rapid transition to renewables. As United Methodist climate activist Bill McKibben points out, a benefit of transitioning to solar energy, besides the fact that it is generally cheaper now than fossil fuels, is that “Sunlight travels 93 million miles to reach the earth, none of them through the Strait of Hormuz.”

Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and former general secretary of Amnesty International, says: "It is like leaving a tap running. Do you mop the floor or turn off the tap? First, you turn off the tap. Unless we shut off fossil fuels, we cannot deal with climate change."

An Opportunity for the United Methodist Church

Clearly, humanity is reaching the end of the road with the current global system, powered by fossil fuels and driven by money. I have written previously about conflicting worldviews at official climate conferences that block strong climate action, with negotiations dominated by fossil-fuel lobbyists and wealthy, fossil-fuel exporting nations. It is wrong to continue consigning humanity to these institutional roadblocks to effective climate action. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds…” It is time to think outside the box. Failure of the official COP process to move the world away from fossil fuels is not just a failure of leadership. It is also a failure of imagination.

The campaign for a Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty is a practical strategy that demonstrates an alternative, emerging worldview that is supported by climate vulnerable nations, Indigenous peoples, young people demanding a livable future, and other climate justice activists, with whom we claim solidarity. The United Methodist affirmation of this worldview is articulated clearly in the Community of All Creation section of our Social Principles, based on the insights of science, Indigenous wisdom, the value of creation, human rights, and justice for all, especially for those who are most harmed by ecological degradation and the destabilizing of Earth’s living systems.   

The emergence of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty campaign at this critical time is an opportunity for us as United Methodists to prayerfully discern how to proceed in our work for climate stability and climate justice as allies with those who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Perhaps we will rise to the occasion and send representatives to the Second Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, which is already scheduled to be hosted by Tuvalu and Ireland in 2027 in the climate-threatened island nation of Tuvalu. This campaign is an opportunity for the United Methodist Church to move from the sidelines to the center of the global climate justice movement, not as leaders but as allies that have much to give in envisioning the transformation of the world in a way that will move it away from the brink of climate disaster. We have values and a worldview to proclaim that are shaped by Jesus’ vision of the Reign of God and faith that the transformation of the world is possible.  

Fossil Free UMC and United Women in Faith have already signed on to support the Fossil Free Nonproliferation Treaty.  Sign on here.

The Rev. Sharon Delgado is a retired United Methodist pastor, author, activist, and Convener of Fossil Free UMC, which advocates for the United Methodist Church to divest from fossil fuels. She is on the Coordinating Committee of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. The revised version of her book, Love in a Time of Climate Change:  Honoring Creation, Establishing Justice, was released in January 2026. Find out more or contact her through her website at https://sharondelgado.org.

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