Global South Bishops Urge UN to Put Climate Justice at the Heart of COP30

Catholic bishops representing Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have addressed a joint letter to United Nations leaders calling for urgent, justice-centered action on climate change ahead of COP30.

Signed by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu (President, SECAM), Cardinal Jaime Spengler (President, CELAM), and Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao (President, FABC), the letter states that the climate crisis is “an existential issue of justice, dignity, and care for our common home.” The bishops note that their appeal is inspired by Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ and the Church’s broader social magisterium, and they call for a profound ecological conversion across nations and sectors.

Addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the President of the 80th UN General Assembly, Ms. Annalena Baerbock, and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mr. Simon Stiell, the letter frames COP30 as a decisive test for global leadership. Citing scientific assessments, the bishops observe that global warming is already around 1.55°C, with disproportionate impacts on the Global South and on future generations.

Rejecting “false solutions”, including extractivist approaches and narrowly financialized “green” models that externalize costs to the poor, the bishops urge a pathway that places equity and human dignity at the center. Among their principal appeals:

• Climate justice and fair finance. Wealthy nations should recognize and address their ecological debt, provide grant-based climate finance that does not indebt developing countries, and ensure robust support for loss and damage.
• A just energy transition. End new fossil-fuel expansion, accelerate access to renewable energy, particularly decentralized solutions for the poor, and adopt rights-based policies that protect workers and communities during the transition.
• Polluter accountability. Establish effective taxation and regulation so that major emitters bear a fair share of the costs of climate impacts and adaptation.
• Inclusion of the most vulnerable. Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and girls, and the poor must have a seat at the decision-making table and access to remedies when harms occur.
• Action commitments. Fulfill the Paris Agreement by submitting more ambitious NDCs, ensuring adequate finance for adaptation and loss-and-damage mechanisms, and achieving zero deforestation by 2030.

“The Church will not remain silent,” the bishops write. “We will continue to raise our voice, alongside science, civil society, and the most vulnerable, with truth, courage, and consistency, until justice is done.”

This intervention follows an earlier Global South message released on 1 July 2025, “A Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation, and Resistance to False Solutions.” That text presents COP30 as a pivotal opportunity to rebuild trust in multilateralism and secure a sustainable future grounded in integral ecology and human dignity.

Charles Ayetan

Below, the link to download the Letter Bishops of the Global South (CELAM, FABC, SECAM) on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly / “UN Secretary General Special High-level Event on Climate Action”, September 10, 2025:

Letter_of_the_Bishops_of_the_Global_South_to_the_UN_Final