ISDS provisions included in many investment treaties effectively allow foreign investors to sue government policies, including climate and environmental legislation, through international arbitration. Fossil fuel investors file more ISDS claims than any other category of investor, using it as a tool to challenge climate policies across the world. In short, ISDS remains one of the most significant obstacles to ambitious climate action and a just transition away from fossil fuels.

This session, part of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement and a Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels workstream of the Santa Marta Pre-Conference, will address the "imperative for states to address ISDS in the context of the transition away from fossil fuels and the need for collective action." Its core objectives are to:

• improve short-term recommendations and develop longer-term recommendations for governments;
• identify challenges and opportunities related to the recommendations, how to address them, and ways forward;
• identify research gaps and who will work on them. 

Luciana Ghiotto, Transnational Institute, and Melissa Blue Sky, Center for International Environmental Law, will facilitate the session. Lukas Schaugg will contribute to the sessions for IISD. 

As the transition away from fossil fuels moves from high-level commitment to implementation, a growing gap is emerging between national efforts and the international coordination needed to support them. Governments are increasingly being asked to develop transition roadmaps, but there is still limited clarity on what these should include, how they should connect to UN climate processes, and which forums are best placed to drive momentum, accountability, and cooperation.

The third session organized as part of the Transition Plans for a 1.5°C-Aligned and Just, Orderly and Equitable Transition Away from Fossil Fuels at the National and International Level workstream, this session will bring together experts and practitioners to examine how international transition roadmaps can complement national planning and strengthen multilateral and plurilateral cooperation. It will explore coordination gaps that global roadmaps could help fill, different models for structuring international roadmap processes, and the governance challenges between fossil fuel exporters and importers. The session will generate practical insights on how to link Brazil’s global roadmap process to the COP agenda, build momentum, and identify the institutional foundations needed to advance fossil fuel phase-out internationally.

Agenda

Introduction

Interventions

Valeria Zanini, Policy Advisor Climate Diplomacy, ECCO

Rory Geary, New Climate Institute 

Lahra Liberti, Head of Unit, Natural Resources for Development, OECD

Break

Breakout Discussion

Take-Aways and Next Steps

As pressure grows to transition away from fossil fuels, governments face a fundamental challenge: what does a credible national transition roadmap actually look like in practice? While global climate pathways provide an essential direction of travel, countries need clearer guidance on how to translate these into national plans that are feasible, equitable, and responsive to very different levels of fossil fuel dependence. This is particularly important for major producers and emerging producers, which must navigate uncertainty over future demand while making decisions with long-term economic and political consequences.

The second session under the Transition Plans for a 1.5°C-Aligned and Just, Orderly and Equitable Transition Away from Fossil Fuels at the National and International Level workstream, this event will bring together leading experts to examine the principles, norms, and institutional features that should underpin strong national roadmaps. It will explore how 1.5°C-aligned fossil fuel phase-out pathways can be translated to the national level, what equitable phase-out looks like across different country contexts, and how institutions such as climate councils can support credibility and accountability. The session will help clarify the core elements of effective roadmaps and how these can be operationalized across countries with different roles in the fossil fuel economy. 

Agenda

Introduction and Housekeeping

Interventions | Round 1

Neil Grant, Senior Expert Climate Policy Analysis, Climate Analytics

Steve Pye, Professor of Energy Systems and Deputy Director, UCL Energy Institute 

Rebecca Draeger, Doctoral Candidate, Energy Planning Program at COPPE/UFRJ

Sivan Kartha, Equitable Transitions Research Director, Stockholm Environment Institute

Breakout Discussions

Interventions | Round 2

Valerie Marcel, Executive Director, Co-founder, New Producers for Sustainable Energy

Claudio Angelo, International Policy Coordinator, Observatorio do Clima

Piers Forster, Professor of Physical Climate Change and founding Director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures, University of Leeds

Breakout Discussions

Next Steps

Countries are under growing pressure to move away from fossil fuels, but many still lack practical guidance on how to design transition plans that are credible, inclusive, and implementable. While a number of national and sectoral transition processes are already underway, experience remains fragmented across regions and institutions. Key questions persist around how to structure decision-making, mobilize finance, manage the phase-out of fossil fuel infrastructure, and ensure that transition planning reflects national circumstances while remaining just and effective.

The first session organized as part of the Transition Plans for a 1.5°C-Aligned and Just, Orderly and Equitable Transition Away from Fossil Fuels at the National and International Level workstream, this session will draw on examples from Germany’s coal transition, Just Energy Transition Partnerships in South Africa and Indonesia, Brazil’s national roadmap process, and emerging opportunities for South-South cooperation. It will identify the most transferable lessons for roadmap development, with a particular focus on the needs of Global South countries and provide practical insights on institutional design, financing, plant and mine closure, land restoration, and exchange models that can strengthen future transition roadmaps.

Agenda

Welcome and Housekeeping

Interventions on Lessons Learned from Existing Transition Plans

Pao-Yu Oei, Professor, Sustainable Energy Transition, Europa-Universität Flensburg

Jesse Burton, Senior Associate, E3G

Giovanni Maurice Pradipta, Policy Advisor, Germanwatch

Nicholas Lippolis, Founder and Executive Director, Centre for Energy Finance and Development

Felipe Corral, Director General - Colombia, Midsummer

Break

Fishbowl Discussion on Transferable Lessons

Next Steps

Fossil fuel subsidies are the biggest form of public financial support for fossil fuels, reaching more than USD 921 billion in 2024. These subsidies place enormous pressure on public budgets and are rapidly increasing again as a response to the current energy crisis.

Blanket subsidies are highly inefficient, often providing disproportionate benefits to high-income households while weakening incentives to reduce fossil fuel use. As countries once again face high energy costs, governments should consider alternative support policies— such as direct support for vulnerable households and industry. Targeting support to people not fossil fuels is more financially sustainable, provides assistance to those who need it most, and retains incentives for building national energy mixes that are less dependent on volatile fossil fuel markets.

In Santa Marta, government commitments to reforming fossil fuel subsidies and other incentives can signal national intentions to the energy sector transition in a way that strengthens energy security through diverse, affordable and localized energy mixes. Initiatives like COFFIS – the coalition of countries committed to subsidy reform, offer a platform for peer learning and technical expertise.

This session, the first under the Defunding Fossils, Funding Transition workstream, will explore best practices on fossil fuel subsidy reform, increasing accountability, and how countries can use fossil fuel subsidy reform as strategy for energy security.

Agenda

Panel Discussion

Vance Culbert, Senior Policy Advisor & COFFIS Secretariat Manager, IISD

Paolo Destilo, Climate Justice Campaigner, COFFIS Observatory

Amra van den Hoven, COFFIS Chair, Ministry of Climate and Green Growth, Netherlands

Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Director of Environment Directorate, OECD

Paula Osorio, Associate, Energy Diplomacy, Transforma

Best Practices on Reform Policies Workshop

Moderator: Vance Culbert, Senior Policy Advisor & COFFIS Secretariat Manager, IISD

Increasing Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Accountability Workshop

Moderator: Bronwen Tucker, Global Public Finance Campaign Co-Manager, Oil Change International

Strengthening Energy Security through Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform Workshop

Moderator: Lahra Liberti, Head of Unit, Natural Resources for Development, OECD

Summary Session

For countries that depend on oil, gas, or coal exports, the shift away from fossil fuels threatens the revenues that keep public finances afloat and external debt serviceable. For energy importers, rising costs and shifting capital flows add pressure to already stretched balance-of-payments positions. For many low- and middle-income countries, this comes at a moment when debt vulnerabilities are high, with servicing costs already crowding out spending on infrastructure, education, and climate resilience.  

This session brings together three perspectives that are rarely combined: the effect on debt vulnerabilities associated with the fiscal risks of the transition, its external macroeconomic dynamics, and the political economy constraints that shape what governments can actually do. It will look at how can developing countries – whether fossil fuel exporters or energy importers – can phase out fossil fuels without tipping into sovereign debt crisis, and the role multilateral institutions can play in making that possible.  

This session is held as part of the workstream Defunding fossils, funding transition at the Science and Policy Pre-Conference.  

Discussion questions

• What types of sovereign debt vulnerabilities may emerge during the energy transition for developing countries?
• How do these vulnerabilities differ between fossil fuel exporters and energy-importing economies?
• Through what mechanisms can the transition generate external-sector debt vulnerabilities, for example through declining export revenues or rising energy import bills?
• How should debt sustainability frameworks evolve to better capture risks emerging from both fiscal and external channels?
• What macroeconomic policies can help countries build the fiscal and external conditions needed to avoid debt vulnerabilities while phasing out fossil fuels?
• How do political economy constraints shape governments’ ability to manage these fiscal and external challenges during the transition? What can multilaterals do to support developing countries move towards a greener and more financially sustainable future?  

Speakers

• Hassan Mahmud, President, Nigeria Association for Energy Economics and Chief Economist, Dangote Group
• Mehdi Oomar, Legal counsel and regional coordinator for Southern Africa, African Legal Support Facility
• Nicolas Lippolis, Founder and Executive Director, Centre for Energy, Finance and Development
• Yanne Horas, Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development

Attracting investment into clean energy quickly and cost-effectively is crucial for governments seeking to reform fossil fuel subsidies and limit their exposure to future energy crises. This session will explore how to mobilize clean energy investment through carbon pricing, tax incentives, and other policy measures — and how to design a policy mix that optimizes for scale, and sustainability.

Discussion questions: 

• What are the key obstacles or market failures to clean energy development for countries?
• What mix of policies is working (or not) and are these policies reinforcing or undermining each other?
• Which policies are most susceptible to loopholes or weak governance, and are some policies being used to soften the impact of others?
• How are finance, energy, and other agencies coordinating to keep the policy mix fiscally sustainable while still accelerating investment?
• How is the current energy crisis reshaping this landscape?
• What can countries attending Santa Marta coordinate on, and what support do countries need from the international community? 

This session is held as part of the workstream Defunding fossils, funding transition workstream at the Science and Policy Pre-Conference.

Speakers

In person

• Dr. Marco Jano, Researcher, IDEA
• David Manley, Green Fiscal Policy Lead, IISD
• Dr. Ronald Steenblik, Senior Technical Advisor, Quaker United Nations Office, Switzerland
• Yanne Horas, Associate, IISD

Online

• Marilou Jane Uy, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Global Economic Governance Initiative
• Dr. Hoa Ho Cong, Lecturer at Academy of Policy and Development, Vietnam 

About the Event

IISD's trade program is evolving in response to an increasingly uncertain global political landscape. Agreements once close to completion are now longer-term goals, while debate about the future of the rules-based system presents a rare opportunity to rethink global trade rules—a complex and challenging task.

Major economies increasingly diverge in their priorities, and the growing influence of private technology companies makes regulating today’s economy even more challenging than before. At the same time, climate change, biodiversity loss, and social inclusion remain central to IISD's strategic plan.

Recognizing that meaningful change requires collaboration, IISD is strengthening relationships with existing partners and expanding engagement with philanthropy amid an uncertain government development funding landscape. This round table provided a space to reflect together on how best to shape trade frameworks that advance environmental sustainability, social inclusion, and good governance.

During the round table, participants

• explored upcoming policy challenges and key opportunities for impact;
• reviewed current areas of focus and progress toward strategic goals;
• discussed priority issues IISD is positioned to advance, as well as potential blind spots;
• examined how to shape trade policy and market frameworks more effectively; and
• identified pathways for meaningful collaboration and future partnerships. 

IISD's Investment Policy Forum (IPF) is the world's only summit of investment negotiators and policy-makers exclusively from developing countries.

The 17th edition of the IPF will take place from September 16 to 18, 2026, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, bringing together investment policy-makers and negotiators from countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as representatives from international institutions and regional bodies.

Since 2007, the IPF has provided a unique space to share challenges, solutions, and ideas across countries and continents, with the common objective of making international investment governance fairer, more resilient, and greener.

Against the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, economic pressures, and climate urgency, the 2026 IPF will focus on the most pressing issues shaping investment governance today, with panels and workshops designed to advance efforts to build more sustainable investment frameworks.

This year's IPF will continue the event's multi-year theme of coherence in investment policy-making, focusing on coherence between international, regional, and national investment policies.

We will also follow up on how the two practical tool kits we developed at recent editions—the 2023 Panama Tool Kit, supporting coherence between the domestic institutions involved in investment policy, and the 2024 Manila Tool Kit, supporting coherence between investment policies and other international agreements—have helped these efforts.

Workers, communities, and other local actors across coal regions in the Global South are advancing just transitions in many ways.

This event showcases initiatives supported by the Innovation Regions for a Just Energy Transition (IKI JET) project. The initiatives include stakeholder engagement forums; innovation labs for economic diversification; skills trainings; development of mine closure and JET plans; and strategies that raise awareness and empower local communities to participate in formal decision-making processes.

The event will feature a roundtable discussion with speakers from across the just transition stakeholder spectrum, including representatives from governments, trade unions, civil society, academia, and tripartite organizations.

Speakers:

Moderated by Jonas Kuehl, International Institute for Sustainable Development

Willington Ortiz, Wuppertal Institute

Blanca Patino, International Labour Organization

Abby Güner, Solidarity Center

Nithi Nesadurai, Climate Action Network Southeast Asia

Saravanee Singtong, Government of Thailand