"We've been cutting with only half of the scissors": Tzeporah Berman on the clean energy transition

The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has shaken global energy markets and injected new urgency to the push to move beyond fossil fuels.

As countries scramble for alternatives, ministers, Indigenous representatives, labour groups and industry experts gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, for the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels. Top of the agenda: how to turn the COP28 pledge to transition away from coal, oil and gas into a managed, equitable phase-out.

Tzeporah Berman, founder and chair of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, was among those in Santa Marta. She spoke with the Climate Champions about why the Hormuz crisis has accelerated the political case for phase-out and what an orderly transition could deliver for workers and developing economies.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How is the global energy crisis reshaping the conversation on the clean energy transition?

There's no question that it makes it more likely that governments will pursue a phase out. The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz isn't a disruption of the system. It's a revelation of how broken the fossil fuel system already is. What I heard in Santa Marta, at the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, is recognition that you don't solve volatility by doubling down on the most volatile energy source on earth. The dramatic price rise and the constriction on supply really woke a lot of decision makers up to how vulnerable the fossil fuel system makes them.

Countries are rapidly looking for solutions to support the transition away from their dependence on these volatile substances that fuel wars, economic instability and a climate crisis. Unlike previous oil wars, this one happened within a context where renewable energy is cheaper and it's available. In Santa Marta, there was a new willingness to look at how to transform energy demand and supply, and how to scale international cooperation to address that.

People realize that a transition is happening and will happen. And when it's unmanaged, there are more shocks, people are left more vulnerable and workers are left behind. In Santa Marta, there were deep conversations on what a global framework for a managed and orderly transition would look like. When it's unmanaged, there are more shocks, people are left vulnerable, and workers left behind. Currently, it’s not looking good for the majority of countries.

What has the Hormuz crisis revealed about how the fossil fuel system actually works?

I think the crisis has made people realize that the fossil fuels we do have are valuable, and should be reserved for the critical uses we can't yet replace. We don't need to replace 100% of the fossil fuels that are produced. We actually need to replace 37%, which is the share for heating our homes or transporting ourselves or turning the lights on. The other 63% is lost to reproduce the system – in extraction, refining, and in inefficient engines and power plants.

Image: Tzeporah Berman, pictured in the centre, during COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In fact, almost 50% of ships are just moving fossil fuels around. So when you look at it that way, you realize that the fossil fuel system is the most inefficient energy system we could have ever created. And it's designed to reproduce itself to keep us dependent on drilling and fracking and mining for more fossil fuels constantly.

What are some of the most exciting clean energy solutions you’re seeing today?

Firstly, the price drop in solar energy. We saw the impact of that in Pakistan this year, with a dramatic uptake in rooftop solar installation. And, secondly, the speed of electric vehicle (EV) uptake, which is unprecedented and far faster than anyone ever predicted. China, which is the world's largest auto market, is expected to make up about 60% of all new car sales by EVs in 2026. Norway already counts 90% of their new car sales as EVs.

What's critical is that commitments to scale renewables are paired with commitments for fossil fuel phase out. The atmosphere doesn’t care how many solar panels we build, it cares how many fossil fuel projects we do not.

Image: Two electric vehicles in Stavanger, Norway on 1 May 2026.

The COP Action Agenda — the official part of the UN climate process that brings together governments, businesses, cities and civil society — is where many of these climate solutions get scaled on the ground. For example, my own organization the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative is working with Action Agenda partners to halt further expansion of fossil fuels. Other solutions include technology shifts and reducing incentives in oil and gas, enabling policy and finance for countries to divest in coal, scaling up sustainable fuels, electrifying energy demand, and ensuring the shift to clean energy is fair for everyone.

While it's important to see progress within the UNFCCC system I am also really excited by the outside diplomatic track opened by Colombia and Netherlands through the conference in Santa Marta with 60 governments in attendance. A follow up conference will be held by Tuvalu and Ireland in April 2027.

How do you see an orderly wind-down of production actually taking shape?

For 30 years we've been cutting with only half of the scissors: cutting the demand and not the supply. There are currently no international agreements between countries, and no domestic policy, to constrain the supply of fossil fuels. The critical piece for national phase-out plans is how quickly each country can realistically transition, and whether those national timelines add up to keeping warming in check. It has to be fair: countries that built their wealth on fossil fuels need to move faster than those that didn't.

In Santa Marta, we saw the idea of a coalition of producing and consuming countries that commit to phasing out together, so that everyone has predictable prices and supply as the transition happens. There's also a proposal for a new global just transition fund focused on implementation, because we've been hearing from countries that they need grants, not loans. Some are waiting three to four years for the money to actually reach them, by which point the projects have already changed.

We're also looking at a "debt-for-renewables" swap — where wealthy creditors forgive a portion of a country's debt in exchange for that country investing in clean energy. We're examining closely how this could work in the Caribbean.

How do we take the workers and jobs with us in this transition, so that we don’t risk losing their livelihoods?

For producing regions, protecting workers' jobs and livelihoods is about having concrete options and a vision for how to replace those fossil fuel revenues and jobs. That requires economic diversification and competitiveness studies. If the transition is led by markets — cheaper prices, rapidly adopted renewables — people are left unexpectedly without jobs as projects close because they're simply not affordable.

The way to support workers transitioning in a fossil fuel supply region is entirely different than in a region simply trying to replace its use of fossil fuels. We make the mistake of assuming it's energy for energy. But the answer could be exporting beer or cotton, building data centres, or expanding tourism or high-tech industries. The solution is going to be regional.

Before we close — what's the one thing you want readers to take away from this moment?

We can't forget that the context for this conversation on fossil fuel phase out is that the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world, recently reached a unanimous decision that expanding fossil fuel production and emissions is illegal and a violation of human rights – given that fossil fuels are the single greatest cause of premature death on the planet due to air pollution, violent storms, and lethal heat.

If you just look at the impact of air pollution alone, 5 to 8 million people die every year from fossil fuel related air pollution alone. And we haven't even talked about oil spills, refinery impacts and explosions.

When a country announces a new oil drilling project, a new fracking or LNG project, it is actually illegal. I don't think that that really has hit home for people yet.