Caritas Internationalis, CIDSE, the Laudato Si Movement and Sciaf are composing a faith leaders’ statement on the moral case for “loss and damage” payments ahead of COP28.
“Loss and damage” refers to compensation for the world’s countries suffering the worst effects of the climate crisis, such as small island nations in the Pacific.
So far, the statement has gathered around 600 signatures from more than 50 different countries, spanning all the world’s continents.
On 23 November, an online event disuccssed this initiative, with speakers including Alistair Dutton, secretary general of Caritas Internationalism Josianne Gauthier, secretary general of CIDSE, and Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi, the Bishop of Tonga and president of Caritas Oceania.
On Monday, The Elders, the global leaders network chaired by former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, urged leaders at COP28 to commit to new sources of funding for loss and damage. They have called on all leaders at COP28 to recognise that the climate and nature crises require an urgent, collaborative, multilateral response.
African bishops under the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences in Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) have called for the phasing out of fossil fuels, generous loss and damage financing, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and action on biodiversity loss.
The bishops are also concerned that foreign debt repayment – at $62 billion this year – is frustrating efforts to boost climate resilience in Africa.
Catholic leaders in Africa demanded decisive action against climate change, as churches and aid agencies supported people affected by floods after months of severe drought. Flooding has affected tens of thousands in the Horn of Africa and eastern Africa during November.
Fr Fredrick Wafula, a priest of the Diocese of Garissa in Kenya’s north-eastern region and the head of the diocesan Caritas agency, said: “We have two calamities. If it’s not a drought, it’s flooding. Of course, we are attributing these to climate change and we need to think more and more about how we are going to find a long-term solution.”
Earlier this month, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, representing Pope Francis, and a representative of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar joined almost 30 faith leaders to make a commitment to supporting the first-of-its-kind “Faith Pavilion” at COP28 and convening at future COP summits.
They urged greater efforts to mobilise religious believers to take concrete actions to combat climate change – both through individual commitment to sound environmental practices, and through advocy for concrete actions from world leaders to address the crisis.
More than 80 Church leaders from 12 African countries have signed a letter calling for an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty in advance of the third round of negotiations which took place in Kenya last week.
They said Africa faces “mountains of plastic pollution, dumped or burnt,” and called on delegates in Nairobi to speak out boldly “for a treaty which delivers change for our most vulnerable brothers and sisters”.
The UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution is charged with developing the first international, legally binding treaty on plastic pollution on land and at sea but the outcome of last week’s conference was disappointing. Plastic is largely made from crude oil and natural gas, giving oil-producing countries and companies a large stake in any treaty.
On 17 November, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico led a group of Catholic leaders to the White House to discuss Laudate Deum, Pope Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation on the environment.
Wester was joined by Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington, Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson, Arizona, and Sr Carol Zinn of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The meeting was organised by Lonnie Ellis, executive director of the Catholic non-profit organization In Solidarity, who also attended the session.
The group met with officials including Ali Zaidi, national climate adviser, John Podesta, senior adviser to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation (who was previously President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff) and John McCarthy, senior adviser for political engagement.
The bishops thanked the administration for the climate initiatives it has already taken, but also discussed pending rules from the Environmental Protection Agency.
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