Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders join call for higher ambition at COP27, the UN climate conference

‘We call for urgent and ambitious action for the most vulnerable people and communities’

contributed by Jessica Maudlin, Presbyterian Hunger Program | Special to Presbyterian News Service

COP27, the UN climate conference, is going on in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. (Photo by LWF/Albin Hillert)

Several members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined other faith leaders from around the world Thursday to call for bold, ambitious decisions on the part of world leaders. Billed as the Implementation COP, these negotiations have stalled, with the consequences of inaction being dire. Their statement is below:

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — As faith leaders we raise our collective voices and call on world leaders and their representatives at COP27 to make the bold decisions necessary and ensure that there are clear and concrete outcomes from this COP.

While negotiations stall, people are dying and livelihoods are being lost as a result of the impact of climate change. The COP27 negotiations are slow and lacking in ambition. Time is running out and it is unacceptable if world leaders do not take clear and decisive action within the few remaining days of COP 27.

With the COP27 negotiations hanging in the balance, as faith leaders and members of the global faith movement for climate justice, led by our sisters and brothers from the Global South, we call for urgent and ambitious action for the most vulnerable people and communities.

Where the current negotiation texts are failing

At the start of COP27, we met and issued a call as a result of the COP27 Talanoa Dialogue. Since then, there has been little progress. So far, we have heard a lot of unilateral pledges from parties and positions. Those are encouraging but little is on paper.

Shirley Krenak of the Krenak indigenous people from Minas Gerais, Brazil, shares her testimony as people gather for a rally of indigenous women at the United Nations climate change conference COP27. Krenak called for justice and for indigenous women’s voices to be heard. (Photo by IWF/Albin Hillert)

In addition, there is lack of progress on climate finance, including adaptation and loss and damage finance. Without this finance, the Global South cannot adapt to the climate emergency, and the debt situation will get worse. Global South leaders are calling the alarm, particularly small island states that are losing their territories, biodiversity, culture and identity.

Increasingly, climate disasters are costing lives and destroying homes in the Global North which are experiencing severe floods in countries like Germany and Belgium and massive widespread fires in Portugal and the United States.

The developing countries negotiating are united in their desire to deliver a loss and damage fund at this COP. The richer countries who have already had the privilege to develop need to show solidarity and political leadership.

This should be an implementation COP where finance is at the heart of delivering for those most impacted by climate change. A failure to reach the critical decisions — such as on the loss and damage facility, doubling adaptation finance and tracking where the money is coming from, who is making good on their commitments — will betray the most marginalized. All countries must acknowledge their responsibilities and scale up their ambition and national climate plans, and countries in the global north need to recognize their historic responsibility and mobilize new and additional climate finance!

We call on leaders at COP27 to preserve all of God’s Creation by:

• Recognizing the urgency of this crisis, including language in the text that requires all countries, but especially major emitters, to come forward in COP27 with new ambition announcements that exceed their current Nationally Determined Contributions targets and keep within reach the 1.5 degree target.
• Calling for all parties to establish a new funding facility for loss and damage; set a separate and additional funding stream from finance for mitigation and adaptation and other humanitarian aid within the financial mechanism; make Loss and Damage a permanent COP agenda item; include an intersectional gender lens, indigenous knowledge and human rights into the text; and ensure adequate capacity and resources to support the full operationalization of the Santiago Network.
• Richer governments committing to ratchet up delivery of finance at scale to fulfil their promises and deliver the shortfalls of the $100 billion per year promised by 2020 and through to 2025. Half of this must be for adaptation in the form of grants and not loans, and address access issues so the finance reaches those who need it most.
• Calling on wealthy countries to cancel the debt, to provide adequate new finance and set up a finance L&D facility. The finance must be grants based, not as loans as it is being done.
• Ensuring gender is no longer siloed and the agreements reached at COP27 have a clear gender transformative climate action lens and clear processes for making that happen. Women and girls, in all their diversities, cannot be treated as victims; they are leading climate solutions and just transitions within and beyond movements and industries.

Signatories

Archbishop Samy Fawzi Shehata, Primate of the Anglican Province of Alexandria, Diocesan Bishop of Egypt

Bishop Julio Murray, Chairman of Anglican Communion Environmental Network

Archbishop Thomas Schirrmacher, World Evangelical Alliance

Bishop Philip Huggins, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture

Bishop Andreas Holmberg, Diocese of Stockholm, Church of Sweden

Bishop Ivan M. Abrahams, Secretary General, World Methodist Council

The Right Reverend Marc Andrus, Bishop of California, The Episcopal Church (Head of Presiding Bishop’s delegation to COP27)

Metropolitan Serafim Kykotis

Dr. Ahmad Safi, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe

María Luisa Navas Zorrilla, Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba

Prof. Dr. Cornelia Füllkrug-Weitzel, Climate Justice Ambassador, ACT Alliance

Erick Boniphas Kapira, Youth Leader, Lutheran World Federation

The Rev. Dr. Laurie Kraus, director, Humanitarian and Global Ecumenical Engagement, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, General Secretary, ACT Alliance

Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Angelious Michael, National Council of Churches in India

Canon Rachel Mash, Green Anglicans (Anglican Church of Southern Africa)

Geert van Dartel, President, Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Netherlands

Christien Crouwel, Secretary General, Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Netherlands

Rev. Fletcher Harper, Expect Director, GreenFaith

Sisters of Charity Federation

Rev. Dr. Rima Nasrallah, Eco-Justice Unit, Middle East Council of Churches

Tonderai Muzhinji, Climate YES, Green Anglican, Zimbabwe Environmental Care Network

International Presentation Association

Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd

Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, Inc.

Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, Director of Advocacy, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, GreenFaith

Passionists International

Floris Faber, ACT Alliance EU

Dr. Beth Blissman, Loretto at the UN

Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul USA

Martha Justice Ministry, Sisters of St. Martha, Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Mark Ereira-Guyer, Director, European Network on Religion & Belief

Ruth Faber, CEO, EU-CORD network

Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur

Edmund Rice International Geneva and New York

Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Loreto Generalate

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University

Rev. Dr. Lesmore Gibson Ezekiel, DOP, All Africa Conference of Churches

Dr. Tinashe Gumbo, Economic and Ecological Justice Executive Secretary, All Africa Conference of Churches (and Africa Faith Actors Network on Climate Justice)

Fondazione Proclade Internazionale-onlus – Claretian Missionaries

Rev. Dennis Nthenge, Green Anglican Movement Kenya, MALIZINGIRA

Rev. Christine B. Benoit, Anglican Diocese of Seychelles, Anglican Church of the Indian Ocean

Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, Quakers in Britain

Laura Meloy, Youth leader for Lutheran World Federation, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

Katarina Kuhnert, ELCIC Carbon Neutral Task Force, Lutheran World Federation

Rev. Shede Habila, Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, Youth Delegate of the Lutheran World Federation

Rev. Raj Kiran Kunja, Youth Leader & Youth Pastor for Lutheran World Federation, GSELC – Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran church in India

Jan Dostal, Youth Leader, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Czech Brethren, Lutheran World Federation

Maua Maro, Kenya Evangelical Lutheran Church

Fatima Yesenia Reina Monterrosa, Salvadoran Lutheran Church

Romario Dohmann, Evangelical Lutheran Church of the River Plate

Pax Christi International

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