Sailing for a Just Transition and Reparation: Climate Justice Flotilla to depart from Sint Maarten

Our wind-powered mission through the Caribbean opposes energy imperialism and reclaims a just transition at the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, in Santa Marta, Colombia.

On Thursday, April 9, 2026, the Climate Justice Flotilla – with its two boats Apsara and Ocean Rebellion – will depart from  Sint Maarten to sail  through the ABC Islands, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, to Santa Marta, Colombia. The mission calls for a global just transition beyond fossil fuels, grounded in reparations and climate justice for the Global South, after the failure in delivering a Roadmap for fossil phase-out at COP30. 

In the middle of the current energy crisis, climate crisis, and the aggressions of fossil fuel imperialism, the Climate Justice Flotilla sails for an ecological and sovereign future. The mission supports Caribbean frontline voices in  the global conversation that will be held at the Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, which is hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands.

The journey will encompass  territories that are still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands today, exposing the ongoing connection between colonial pasts and current realities, proving that without justice, reparations, and sovereignty, there is no climate action. 

With European colonization and the transatlantic slave trade, the Caribbean Indigenous maritime corridors were violently repurposed, becoming arteries for extraction and dispossession. These corridors became a crossroads for fossil fuel refinement and shipment. Now Sint Maarten and the ABC Islands bear the burden of public debt, dependent economies, high energy prices, extractive tourism and exposure to environmental and climate hazards.

“The Caribbean sits at the heart of the world’s climate injustices because of centuries of colonial extraction and imposed fossil dependency. ” says Mar Faciolince Martina, a Colombian-Curaçaoan activist and anthropologist, and member of the Steering Committee of the Climate Justice Flotilla. “A real transition must support repairing those foundations to restore sovereignty over water, food, land, and energy systems. That is why the Caribbean needs reparations, now.”

Sailing through  the ABC islands, the Climate Justice Flotilla will arrive in Santa Marta around the 22nd of April, declaring that a just, regenerative future can be built through solidarity, courage, and collective action.

Our demands

The Climate Justice Flotilla calls for:

• A binding Fossil Fuel Treaty, guaranteeing a just transition and Free, Prior, and Informed Consent for affected communities.
• Debt cancellation, climate reparations, and adequate climate finance, recognising past and present colonial harm while creating fiscal space for sovereign transitions across the Global South.
• A downscaling of energy and material consumption in the Global North, essential for remaining within planetary boundaries.

Furthermore, the Climate Justice Flotilla will support a proposal of an energy embargo, together with Global Sumud Flotilla, Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, and BDS Colombia, in the form of a Prohibited Uses Protocol—a proposed legal framework classifying fossil fuel uses linked to warfare, genocide, ecocide, and climate apartheid as violations of the obligation to protect life.

Our Journey

Our next stops will be:

• Bonaire: expected arrival on Monday, April 13
• Curaçao: expected arrival on Wednesday, April 15
• Aruba: expected arrival on Saturday, April 18
• Santa Marta: expected arrival on Wednesday, April 22

The time is highly indicative and depends on the sea and on the mission needs.

Supporters of the initiative

The Climate Justice Flotilla is made possible by a wide coalition of activists and people coming from Global Sumud Flotilla, Extinction Rebellion, United For Climate Justice, Flotilla 4 Change, Tierra Nuestra, Scientist Rebellion, Fossil Fuel Treaty, Research and Degrowth International, and Debt for Climate.