As the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) heats up in Belém, Brazil, one country's government is notably absent—the United States.
Nearly two hundred nations are gathering to respond to the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is dangerously warming the planet, by some estimates around 1.3° C (2.34° F) since 1850.
Ten years ago, 195 parties signed the historic Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty in which parties agreed to set emissions reductions targets to keep global temperatures well below 2° C (3.6° F), and preferably below 1.5° C warming (2.7° F) since pre-industrial levels, a threshold scientists say could prevent the most devastating effects of climate change. This meant cutting emissions by roughly 50% or more by 2030. Such a landmark agreement was spawned in part by Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home, released just months before COP21 and widely seen as a powerful moral force on the negotiations.
Ten years later, though, our world is falling short of these admirable goals. And the consequences are increasingly clear.
Climate change is wreaking havoc around the planet through intensifying storms (e.g. Hurricane Melissa), devastating wildfires (e.g. Los Angeles), rising droughts (e.g. Pakistan), and the bleaching of coral reefs (e.g. South Florida). It threatens to displace low-lying nations and devastate vulnerable communities; exacerbate the Earth’s sixth mass extinction; and cost the global economy as much as $38 trillion per year by 2049. For every tenth of a degree of global warming that we avoid, a recent study suggests, we will preserve a livable climate for over 100 million people.
And yet, the U.S. has pulled out of the Paris Agreement for the second time, despite being the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the largest emitter per capita. The president has called climate change a hoax; appointed Lee Zeldin, who has taken more than $270,000 from the oil and gas industry, as head of the EPA; and used a speech before the United Nations to dismiss climate change and complain about marble floors.
As we weather many other crises in our backyards, we can’t lose sight of a deeper existential bind—our damage to the biophysics of the Earth’s climate, which we depend on to grow food, regulate water cycles, and protect biodiversity, and which has no regard for economic expedience or the winds of politics.
Let’s be clear: the greatest threat we face in curbing climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, which makes up about 68% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Any livable future must include a rapid shift away from oil, coal, and natural gas, and toward renewable energies like solar, wind, and geothermal—in a way that does not reinforce the inequities fueling the climate crisis. Such a transition can’t just be the responsibility of individuals—it is big oil, after all, that has co-opted the idea of a carbon footprint to deflect responsibility for emissions. Fossil fuel companies must be held accountable for obscuring climate data and buying politicians to protect short-term profits. Governments need to stop subsidizing fossil fuels as much as $7 trillion each year. We need to create systems that make it easier for people to live clean and healthy lifestyles.
While last year was the hottest in recorded history, there has also been reason for hope. 93% of new energy production worldwide came from renewables. In the first half of this year, clean energy generated more electricity than coal. Solar and wind have never been more affordable, growing rapidly in Texas, California, and across the US, despite the climate of denial and erosion of the Inflation Reduction Act. Solar is also exploding around the world—from China to Indonesia to Pakistan. Harnessing the energy of the sun is pervasive, not easily hoarded, and increasingly affordable, requiring less mining than fossil fuels with materials that can be recycled. As Bill McKibben would say, do we want to get our energy from heaven or from hell?
We have the data. We have the technical solutions. But do we have the moral clarity, courage, and conviction to make the shift necessary to preserve a viable future on this planet?
Fortunately, this year’s COP30 for the first time included an Ethical Stocktake, a worldwide dialogue addressing the gap between knowledge and action on the climate crisis. Bringing together social, cultural, spiritual, business, scientific, and political leaders, the Ethical Stocktake includes six regional dialogues convening diverse voices on the moral imperative of climate action. The North America Dialogue was co-led by Karenna Gore from the Center for Earth Ethics and Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of the Environment and Climate.
“On the road to COP30, we hope to leave as a legacy the establishment of a new benchmark for addressing the climate emergency over the next ten years,” Silva said, “….a strong signal of the revival of multilateralism and of the value of the ethical dimension in our choices and actions.”
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Co-Director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, took part in the Ethical Stocktake by organizing and moderating an interactive webinar on “Science and Spirituality: An Ethical Stocktake Dialogue to Inspire COP30.” Participating in the conversation was Lyla June Johnston, a musician, scholar and community organizer of Diné (Navajo); Ursula Goodenough, Professor Emerita of biology at Washington University and author of The Sacred Depths of Nature; Melanie Harris, Professor of Black feminist thought and womanist theology at Wake Forest School of Divinity; Mirian Vilela, Executive Director of Earth Charter International Secretariat; and Steve Kolmes, Editor of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development.
“The moral compass and the ethical will for change remains elusive—yet on the horizon, because people realize something is missing,” Tucker said. “We have to deepen the moral force. The spiritual, the moral, the ethical need to be infused with the policy, science and law that are driving policy responses.”
Integral to the pursuit of climate justice are the voices of Indigenous peoples . At COP30 , the Brazilian government has pledged historic participation from Indigenous peoples, with about 25,000 Indigenous peoples in attendance, yet only 14% (360 people) have credentials for the Blue Zone reserved for official negotiations. Early Friday, a group of Munduruku protesters from the Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Pará regions blocked the entrance to the COP30 meeting, demanding a greater voice and the protection of ancestral lands from extractive industries.
Let’s hope those gathered in Brazil can heed these voices and catalyze our way to a more just, clean energy future—one that uplifts the vulnerable and protects all creatures of the Earth as a sacred trust.