MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Brazil forward Estevao's World Cup hopes are in doubt after it was confirmed Friday he would miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.
It is not clear if the Chelsea player will recover in time for the tournament that runs through June and July.
Chelsea interim coach Calum McFarlane did not give a timeframe for Estevao's recovery from the injury sustained in the first half of last week's game against Manchester United.
“Estevao unfortunately won’t play for us this season because he is going to be out for a little bit of time. That's really unfortunate, especially for someone so young and so talented," McFarlane said. "I am sure he is very hopeful he can make the World Cup, but I don’t know on that.”
The 19-year-old Estevao was taken off after 16 minutes of the 1-0 loss at Stamford Bridge and missed Tuesday's 3-0 defeat at Brighton.
Former coach Liam Rosenior revealed last week that the teenager was in tears after being taken off. Hamstring injuries can take several weeks to recover from, or months in the most severe cases.
Brazil's first game at the World Cup is against Morocco at New York/New Jersey Stadium on June 13.
Estevao joined Chelsea from Palmeiras last year and has scored eight goals this season. He was expected to be part of Carlo Ancelotti's squad for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico after scoring five times in his last six international appearances.
His injury is the latest blow to Brazil, which will be without Real Madrid winger Rodrygo because of a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee.
Chelsea plays Leeds in the semifinals of the FA Cup on Sunday. Injured duo Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro could both be in contention to play.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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Manchester City's Nico O'Reilly, left, and Chelsea's Estevao fight for the ball during the Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and Manchester City in London, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Against a backdrop of rising global tensions and energy market instability, governments from around 50 countries will gather Friday in Colombia’s Caribbean city of Santa Marta for a summit aimed at accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels.
The April 24–29 conference, co-hosted by Colombia and the Netherlands, will bring together ministers, subnational governments, academics and civil society groups to discuss how to move beyond oil, gas and coal while ensuring the transition is “just, orderly and equitable,” organizers said.
The meeting reflects growing frustration among some governments and advocates that decades of U.N. climate negotiations have failed to directly address fossil fuel production — the main driver of global warming — prompting the Santa Marta summit to push the issue outside formal talks.
Organizers say the gathering is intended to open space for a politically sensitive debate that has long been avoided in international climate negotiations.
“It is definitely a political space. We are opening a space for discussion that does not exist,” Colombia’s environment minister, Irene Vélez Torres, told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the summit.
Unlike formal U.N. climate negotiations, the meeting is not expected to produce binding commitments. Instead, officials say the goal is to generate a set of proposals and build coalitions of countries willing to move faster on phasing out fossil fuels.
“We’ve also seen climate action unfortunately fall down the list of government priorities,” said Claudio Angelo, head of international policy at the Observatorio do Clima think tank in Brazil.
Nations from Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, many of which play key roles in fossil fuel production or consumption, will attend. The United States and Saudi Arabia — two of the world’s largest oil producers — will not, underscoring divisions between countries pushing for a faster transition and those more closely tied to fossil fuel interests.
Under the Paris Agreement — the 2015 global climate accord — countries set their own emissions targets, meaning no international process can compel governments to phase out fossil fuels.
The summit is part of a broader push to move climate diplomacy beyond emissions targets and toward directly confronting fossil fuel production — a politically sensitive issue that has long divided countries.
Some advocates say new approaches are needed to close what they see as a major gap in global climate policy.
“Fossil-free zones turn global climate goals into concrete geographic decisions,” said Andrés Gómez of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, referring to proposals to designate areas where oil, gas and coal extraction would be off-limits, particularly in ecologically sensitive regions.
Indigenous leaders involved in the process say they are pushing governments attending the Santa Marta summit to adopt fossil-free zones as part of their transition plans.
“For Indigenous peoples, stopping fossil fuel extraction is not only a climate imperative — it is essential to defending our territories, our governance systems and our right to self-determination,” said Juan Carlos Jintiach, executive secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, a coalition of Indigenous and local community organizations representing millions of people across forest regions worldwide.
He added that governments must move “from commitments to implementation” by integrating fossil-free zones into national energy transition plans.
Analysis by advocacy groups shows that oil and gas concessions already overlap with vast areas of tropical forest and Indigenous territories, underscoring the scale of the challenge.
The conference comes at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, including the war in Iran, which has disrupted global energy markets and threatened supply through the Strait of Hormuz — a critical route for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil.
The resulting price spikes are already being felt far beyond energy markets.
“Oil prices don’t just stay in energy markets — they move straight into people’s lives,” said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and a leading climate justice advocate expected to attend the Santa Marta conference, speaking at a press conference ahead of the event.
“Impacts are hitting the most vulnerable hardest, as always, while oil companies reap windfall profits,” she said.
In her interview, Vélez said such instability should accelerate — rather than delay — the transition.
“The crisis — and let’s call it what it is — the war in the Middle East has triggered a global crisis,” she said. “In this case, I believe the movement should be toward radicalizing the green agenda and the transitions.”
Some analysts warn that supply shocks could push countries to increase fossil fuel production in the short term, even as they commit to long-term climate goals — highlighting the tension between energy security and climate action.
That tension is particularly visible in Latin America, where many economies rely heavily on oil, gas and mining exports even as governments position themselves as climate leaders. Colombia, one of the region’s top oil producers and home to roughly 6% of the Amazon rainforest, depends on crude exports for a significant share of government revenue and foreign income.
At the same time, Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s government has pledged to halt new oil exploration and push for a global phaseout of fossil fuels.
“Economic and fiscal dependence is a problem, and it is perhaps the main challenge we face,” Vélez said.
Financial constraints are also expected to shape discussions. Many developing countries face high levels of public debt and limited fiscal space, making it difficult to invest in renewable energy and other elements of the transition.
Civil society groups say that without reforms to the global financial system, these constraints will continue to slow progress.
“Moving away from fossil fuels requires, without a doubt, a careful economic and energy transition plan,” said Carola Mejía of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Economic, Social and Climate Justice.
Gabriella Bianchini of Global Witness said the stakes go beyond climate alone.
“As people everywhere suffer the consequences of oil-driven conflict, it’s never been clearer that the world needs to leave the fossil fuel era behind,” she said. “Santa Marta is a chance for governments and communities to grab the bull by the horns and take action toward a greener, more equitable and peaceful world.”
She added that while U.N. climate talks remain crucial, they have repeatedly struggled to deliver meaningful progress on fossil fuels.
“Santa Marta represents space for governments to work on the one plan we know will stave off the worst impacts of climate breakdown: a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels,” Bianchini said.
Observers say a key question will be whether the meeting can produce a clearer political signal on an issue that has remained largely unresolved in global climate talks.
“If we think about it, the conference is that turning point where, collectively, we decide to be on the right side of history,” environment minister Vélez said.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Coal piles sit near a chemical plant in Datong, China, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
FILE - A ferry crosses Havana Bay past the Nico Lopez oil refinery where tankers are anchored in Havana Bay, Cuba, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)
FILE - Boatmen operating Catraia, a traditional boat used on the Oiapoque River, prepare for the crossing with a load of gasoline canisters filled at a Petrobras gas station in a port in the city of Oiapoque, Amapa state, Brazil, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
A solar farm operates in Datong, China, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
FILE - A worker collects engine oil as he works at a degassing station at Zubair oil field near Basra, Iraq, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
