Mois : décembre 2023

Burning coal, oil and gas releases heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, which are primarily driving climate change. While the Paris Agreement spells out emissions reduction targets, it does not stipulate how countries achieve them nor does it mention fossil fuels. 

Trying to address climate change without talking about fossil fuels is akin to trying to change a lightbulb without removing the bulb, said Lorna Gold, board president of Laudato Si’ Movement and executive director of FaithInvest, during an official COP28 side event where the letter was presented.

« It feels sometimes at COPs that we’re … going around the place talking about everything apart from the one thing we need to be doing, » she said.

Two years ago, at COP26 in Glasgow, nations for the first time stated the need to « phase down » the use of « unabated coal power. » A focal point at COP28 — which has attracted a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists — is whether nations will include in the final text a commitment to halt the use of fossil fuels. A working draft issued Dec. 5 laid out options of « an orderly and just phase out of fossil fuels » or « accelerating efforts towards phasing out unabated fossil fuels » or no mention at all.

More than 100 countries have unified behind a phaseout of unabated fossil fuels, which refers to emissions that cannot be captured and stored, while oil-and-gas producing countries have resisted the « phaseout » phrasing.

Al-Jaber himself has come under fire for comments before COP28 questioning the scientific basis for a need to phase out fossil fuel use. The IPCC report, along with numerous other scientific reports, have spelled out the connection between emissions from burning fossil fuels and rising global temperatures, with nearly 90% of carbon emissions in the atmosphere from coal, oil and gas.

« One thing is clear: To have a decent chance of holding to the 1.5 °C limit, fossil fuel extraction must begin to decline immediately, phase down rapidly in the coming decades, and cease worldwide by 2050, » the Catholic letter stated.

For countries to do that, the Catholic groups say a new pact is needed due to the Paris Agreement’s omission of fossil fuels, and they called on governments to adopt a parallel Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

A growing number of Catholic and other faith groups have rallied behind the grassroots-led fossil fuel treaty since its introduction in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has garnered support from nearly 100 cities and thousands of civil society groups. Eleven countries have endorsed the treaty proposal so far, including Colombia and Samoa at COP28. Tzeporah Berman, chair of the treaty initiative, was among the speakers at the Catholic letter event. 

While the Holy See, now an official party to the Paris Agreement, has not taken a stance on the proposed treaty, individual Vatican officials have voiced support.

In a recorded message at the COP28 event, Archbishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, secretary general of CELAM, the Latin American bishops’ council, said the Paris accord « must be complemented by a binding treaty to ‘end the fossil fuel era,’  » referring to Pope Francis’ call in his 2023 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation message.

In his 2015 encyclical « Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home, » Francis stated « the use of highly polluting fossil fuels — especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas — needs to be progressively replaced without delay. » In his recent apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum he bemoaned that eight years later « the necessary transition towards clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed. »

Francis in his message to the Dubai climate summit, read by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, stated that for COP28 to be a successful « turning point » will require countries to agree to binding and monitored commitments that include eliminating fossil fuels as part of an accelerated transition to renewable energy sources.

The Catholic letter joined in calling for countries to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030. At COP28, more than 120 countries backed that goal, along with doubling energy efficiency.

Other asks by the Catholic institutions include:

• « Clear, actionable, and specific paths » from the global stocktake process to put countries back on track to meeting the Paris goals, in ways that respect human rights and Indigenous people;
• Comprehensive operationalization of the loss and damage fund for countries hit hardest already by climate impacts, like more extreme heatwaves, droughts and storms;
• Policies that take into account and address « entrenched structural causes » driving climate change in the economy and society;
• Recognition of the need for cultural changes, including in personal lifestyles, beyond technological fixes.

« As leaders, your decisions will determine the fate of our common home and the common good of present and future generations, » the letter stated.

During the COP28 event, Catholic speakers highlighted the ways climate change has adversely impacted women and vulnerable places like island states, and noted steps Catholics can take through education, investments and their purchasing.

Fr. Jean Rajoelison, deputy secretary general of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, said the Catholic community asks leaders at COP28 « to recognize their moral duty and commit to urgently taking ambitious action to protect our common home and the most vulnerable. »

In his message, Francis spoke softly and thanked those behind the Faith Pavilion’s creation, saying it « testifies to the willingness to work together. »

« At the present time the world needs alliances that are not against someone, but in favor of everyone, » he said. « It is important that religions, without falling into the trap of syncretism, set a good example by working together: not for their own interests or those of one party, but for the interests of our world. Among these, the most important nowadays are peace and the climate. »

Similarly, al-Tayeb, addressing the war between Israel and Hamas, stated « I implore the world: It is time to halt these atrocious, criminal wars. »

« I am convinced that if they persist in this manner, God forbid, we will be left with neither a viable environment nor a livable climate for our children or future generations, » he said.

After the recorded messages, a video played showing both religious leaders signing onto an interfaith statement addressed to COP28, which demanded that nations collectively take « transformative action » to hold average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius — a key goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement — and outlined 13 calls to action, including a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy sources. Since the late 1800s, the planet has heated 1.1 to 1.2 C, and global emissions need to be reduced nearly in half by 2030 to keep the 1.5 C warming limit within reach.

Al-Tayeb called climate change « one of the most serious challenges facing humanity today » and described COP28 as « a precious opportunity to enhance the efforts of protecting our common environment from imminent destruction, which is looming larger year after year. »

The establishment of the Faith Pavilion at COP28 is the latest effort by the world’s religions not only to speak in a unified voice on the protection of the planet, its people and ecosystems, but also to have a greater role within U.N. proceedings. Ahead of COP26, the pope hosted 40-plus faith leaders who signed a then-unprecedented interfaith letter calling for more urgent and ambitious responses to climate change. And last year in Montreal, the COP15 U.N. summit on biodiversity hosted its first Faith Pavilion.

Following the inaugural event, 30 religious leaders issued a statement from the Faith Pavilion that called on the nearly 200 countries at COP28 to adopt the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to halt all new fossil fuel projects and outline a just and equitable path to fully abandon coal, oil and gas for renewable sources. 

The fate of fossil fuels is at the center of debates at COP28. In a joint announcement, 106 countries, including the 27 nations in the European Union, have endorsed a global phaseout of unabated fossil fuels, which refers to emissions that cannot be captured and stored. The U.S. has also indicated its support.

The Faith Pavilion statement also pressed negotiators to fully fund the Green Climate Fund, which was meant to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries by 2020, and to extend and diversify funding for the newly established loss and damage fund. Finally, they advocated that « forceful accountability measures » be established to hold nations to their commitments and to account for inaction or delays.

“Faith leaders are united with climate scientists and activists to say: now is not the time to deny the science, » Rabbi Yonatan Neril, founder of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, said in an accompanying statement.

In a longer message during the Dec. 3 event, read by Parolin as was the case a day earlier at the world leaders’ segment of the climate conference, Francis said the Faith Pavilion « shows that all authentic religious beliefs are a source of encounter and action. »

He stressed the need for people to see past divisions and view one another as brothers and sisters who are finite creatures.

« For we are indeed mortal, we have our limits, and protecting life also entails opposing the rapacious illusion of omnipotence that is devastating our planet, » the pope said. « That insatiable desire for power wells up whenever we consider ourselves lords of the world, whenever we live as though God did not exist and, as a result, end up prey to passing things. Then, instead of mastering technology, we let technology master us.

« That is why the problem of climate change is also a religious problem: its roots lie in the creature’s presumption of self-sufficiency, » Francis said in the remarks read by Parolin.

The pope again stressed the need for urgent action for the sake of the environment. He said it is not enough to increase spending, but « we need to change our way of life and thus educate everyone to sober and fraternal lifestyles. This is an essential obligation for religions, which are called to teach contemplation, since creation is not only an ecosystem to preserve, but also a gift to embrace. »

He continued, « A world poor in contemplation will be a world polluted in soul, a world that will continue to discard people and produce waste. »

Along with ushering an ecological conversion, religions are also tasked with peacekeeping, Francis said.

« Before our very eyes, we can see how wars and conflicts are harming the environment and dividing nations, hindering a common commitment to addressing shared problems like the protection of the planet, » he said.

The pope’s words emphasized the relationship between work for climate justice and for peace, said Josianne Gauthier, secretary general of CIDSE, a network of mostly European-based Catholic development agencies.

Gauthier attended the Faith Pavilion inauguration, watching a livestream outside of the area where the presentations took place. While « a bit small and formal, » she told EarthBeat it is an important space and one she hopes is continued in future climate COPs.

Jesuit Fr. Rigobert Minani, at COP28 representing the Ecclesial Network of the Congo Basin, added that he believed the Faith Pavilion has already helped to give faith-based organizations a greater presence at the summit. He told EarthBeat he believes it can also help religions learn from one another, and to assist country delegates in developing interconnected approaches to mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage from climate change.

Within the opening days of COP28, nations have reached a series of deals.

They finalized a loss and damage fund, and 15 nations and the European Union have so far pledged $655 million in initial financing, including $100 million from the UAE and $17.5 million from the U.S, which also pledged an additional $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund. The loss and damage fund aims to help countries that have already suffered destruction and both economic and noneconomic losses from climate-related impacts.

The U.S. announced a new rule to nearly wipe out emissions from methane — a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide — and 50 oil companies pledged to mostly eliminate methane emissions from operations by 2030. Nearly 120 countries have committed to tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, and in a separate deal, 20-plus countries announced plans to triple nuclear energy production by 2050.

Environmental groups offered mixed reactions to the pledges, noting that most of the deals announced so far are voluntary and do not require any reduction of the use of fossil fuels, whose burning releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases that are primarily driving climate change. Numerous Catholic and faith groups have joined calls for countries at COP28 to commit to a full phaseout of fossil fuels.

On Dec. 2, Colombia, a large oil-producing country, became the 10th nation to endorse a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But through the cardinal, the pope still sought to deliver to world leaders and negotiators in Dubai a forceful message that alternated between encouraging and searing.

« We must answer now: Are we working for a culture of life or a culture of death? To all of you I make this heartfelt appeal: Let us choose life! Let us choose the future! »

« May this COP prove to be a turning point, demonstrating a clear and tangible political will that can lead to a decisive acceleration of ecological transition, » Parolin read, « through means that meet three requirements: they must be ‘efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.’ And achieved in four sectors: energy efficiency; renewable sources; the elimination of fossil fuels; and education in lifestyles that are less dependent on the latter. »

Burning coal, oil and gas releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases, which are the primary driver of human-caused climate change.

Numerous countries, alongside civil society groups including faith-based organizations, have pressed nations at COP28 to agree to the full phaseout of fossil fuels. That outcome is seen as unlikely, as others have proposed a « phasedown » of « unabated » fossil fuel use where emissions can’t be captured before entering the atmosphere. 

Francis was not the only absent world leader among the 160 heads of states who took part in the high-level segment. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping both stayed home. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on Biden’s behalf Dec. 2 as well. Parolin read an excerpt of a longer speech the pope had prepared, which he said would be published in full. 

In his remarks, the pope called the destruction of the environment « an offense against God » and a sin, « one that greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable in our midst and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations. »

Citing the war waging in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, roughly 1,300 miles from the summit, Francis bemoaned the many resources « squandered on weaponry that destroys lives and devastates our common home. » He repeated a proposal from his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti that money spent on war be redirected to end hunger and for climate initiatives in poorer countries.

Francis also pushed back against attempts to cast climate change as the fault of the poor and developing countries, referencing a recent Oxfam report that found the richest 10% of the world population is responsible for half of global emissions, compared to the poorest 50% contributing 8% of emissions. 

« The gap between the opulent few and the masses of the poor has never been so abysmal. The poor are the real victims of what is happening, » he said. He then suggested that financial debts be remitted for developing countries as a way for industrialized nations to repay the « ecological debt » he said they’ve incurred through polluting and exploiting natural resources.

The pope’s planned appearance at COP28 would have come nearly two months after he issued Laudate Deum, an apostolic exhortation « on the climate crisis. » In that document, Francis bluntly criticized the slow progress that countries have made to date in limiting global warming, and with it the devastation that comes with more severe droughts, heatwaves and storms.

On the first day of COP28, the World Meteorological Organization announced that 2023 is on track to be the hottest year on record, reaching 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Under the Paris Agreement, countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit average global temperature rise ideally to « well below » 2 C and ideally 1.5 C.

« These are more than just statistics. We risk losing the race to save our glaciers and to rein in sea level rise, » WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. « We cannot return to the climate of the 20th century, but we must act now to limit the risks of an increasingly inhospitable climate in this and the coming centuries. »

A major focus at COP28 will be the conclusion of the « global stocktake » assessing nations’ progress to date in meeting the Paris goals. The process is expected to show that nations are well off pace, and while some steps have been made, emissions continue to rise and the planet is projected to double the Paris warming limit, reaching 1.5 C as early as the 2030s.

Already facing credibility questions, the 28th edition of the U.N. climate conference opened to controversy. A report by the BBC revealed that officials with host country UAE were directed to pursue oil deals with other nations in pre-COP meetings. Sultan Al-Jaber, COP28 president and head of the UAE’s ADNOC national oil company, has called the report false.

In his prepared remarks, Francis repeated his criticism from Laudate Deum of the current state of multilateralism that has produced slow and incremental progress in response to climate change after nearly three decades of international negotiations.

« It is up to this generation to heed the cry of peoples, the young and children, and to lay the foundations of a new multilateralism. Why not begin precisely from our common home? » he said.

« Climate change signals the need for political change. Let us emerge from the narrowness of self-interest and nationalism; these are approaches belonging to the past. Let us join in embracing an alternative vision: this will help to bring about an ecological conversion, for ‘there are no lasting changes without cultural changes.' »

He urged world leaders and negotiators to craft policies that provide « concrete and cohesive responses » to climate change. He called on government officials to demonstrate the nobility of public service. « In the end, the purpose of power is to serve, » he said. « It is useless to cling to an authority that will one day be remembered for its inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so. »

« Please, let us move forward and not turn back, » the pope pleaded, adding « History will be grateful to you. » 

While Francis could not travel to Dubai, an eight-person Holy See delegation is present. It is the second conference since the Vatican formally signed onto the Paris Agreement and joined the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

And though he did not appear in person at the world leaders’ summit, the pope is set to deliver a video message Dec. 3 to help inaugurate the first-ever Faith Pavilion at a U.N. climate conference. Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque will also provide a recorded message.

Expressing hope that 2024 could mark a breakthrough, Francis ended his speech by recounting a story from his saint namesake from 800 years earlier. In 1224, Francis of Assisi, completely blind and in physical pain, composed his « Canticle of the Creatures » as a way to give praise to God for the creatures he could no longer see « but knew that they were his brothers and sisters. »

« I too, who bear the name Francis, with the heartfelt urgency of a prayer, want to leave you with this message, » Parolin read on behalf of the pope. « Let us leave behind our divisions and unite our forces! And with God’s help, let us emerge from the dark night of wars and environmental devastation in order to turn our common future into the dawn of a new and radiant day. »