Declaration from National Council of Churches in India To the 26th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP26) Of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Scheduled to open on 31stOctober 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
Passing through closed streets, groups of cops and demonstrations to get to the Blue Zone is a strange situation for someone with roots in the Christian activist environment. I walk with the badge around my neck but I try to cover it with my jacket until I get to the first security check before entering the Blue Zone, the place where the negotiations happen. Thousands of people gather in the Blue Zone, the observers, the delegations, the press, the staff. It is like a small society here, a society under the UN flag that exists only for a couple of weeks.
Over 23-29 October, a Global Conference of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora (AAD) revisited the historical 1945 Manchester Pan-African Conference and critically reviewed progress made since then. Speakers and participants also worked to determine and develop effective global strategies to radically change the lot of Africans and people of African descent globally—and thereby defeat the scourge of racism in the world.
COP26 is in full swing, and I manage to follow it from my desk at home, thanks to digital technology. This is one positive thing we learned from COVID-19: we don’t need to fly around the world anymore. That is…provided there is good internet connection, which is not always the case in all countries.
COP26 in Glasgow started this week, offering a stage for world political leaders. For most of them, it was an opportunity to share their vision of the world they are leading. For some others, despite being among the most powerful, COP26 is also an opportunity to express their position on the major challenge of humanity in the 21st century by their absence. What did we hear in the first two days of this COP?
The highly anticipated, long awaited COP26 began 31 October. It has now been six years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement at COP21 and much remains to be implemented in order to fulfil the promises agreed to at that historic moment by the member states. We knew then that the road ahead would be challenging and that changing our systems would require a radical shift in policies and behaviours—but we were hopeful.
In many parts of Ethiopia, the forests surrounding churches and monasteries are among the last remaining in the country. They are severely threatened as people cut trees to obtain firewood. The church fights for the preservation of the forests by making local communities more aware of the link between the forests and water availability and by helping them to find alternative livelihoods for themselves and their families.
2021 has shown how vulnerable and unprepared even wealthy, industrialized countries are in the face of the escalating climate crisis. Devastating flooding, unprecedented heat waves and out-of-control wildfires have hit parts of Europe and North America. Yet this is just a foretaste of catastrophes that have long since become a bitter reality in other parts of the world. They are almost always a matter of too much or too little water. Yet water problems are often the result of discrimination and political failure, especially in times of climate change.
In a letter to G20 leaders, global religious leaders representing half a billion Christians in over 100 countries warned that rising global temperatures will have increasingly disastrous consequences on impoverished and vulnerable communities that contribute least to the climate crisis.
The Pacific islands are in grave danger and at the frontline of global climate change, so that is why the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, known as COP26, in Glasgow is so important for islanders, says Rev. James Bhagwan. He is general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, a Methodist minister based in Fiji, and visited Geneva on his way to COP26, in Scotland's biggest city, Glasgow, from 31 October to 12 November.
As people of faith, we join in committing to pray and act against hunger at this time when 811m people worldwide go to bed hungry each night, hunger has increased globally by 25% since 2019, and across the globe more than 41m people–around half of them children–are at risk of falling into famine in 43 countries.
At a World Council of Churches (WCC) webinar on “Sustainable Food Systems to Overcome Hunger” held 8 October, inter-generational speakers and participants provided feedback and analysis of the UN Food Systems Summit and the processes leading to the summit.
On 4 October 2021, faith leaders representing the world’s major religions joined scientists at the Vatican to call on the international community to raise their ambition and step up their climate action ahead of COP26. Almost 40 faith leaders signed a joint Appeal, which was presented by Pope Francis to COP26 President-Designate, the Rt Hon Alok Sharma, and the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon. Luigi Di Maio.
This webinar on 8 October 2021 will provide an opportunity for critical analysis and feedback on the UN Food Systems Summit process and summit. (Pre-summit took place in July and the Summit on 23rd September).
As young members of the Christian family in Italy, it is our hope that COP26 will be a crucial element in addressing the climate crisis. Together, we ask world leaders to take this opportunity of this session to define with determination and ambition measurable goals of climate justice for all.
Milan in September 2021 hosts the pre-conference of the parties in the framework of the UN Convention on Climate Change (pre-COP 26), 18 years after the COP 9 which took place in Milan in 2003.
The food system is a complex web of activities involving production, processing, transport, and consumption. Key issues concerning the food system include how food production affects the natural environment, the impact of food on individual and population health, the governance and economics of food production, its sustainability, and the degree to which we waste food.
