WCC news: WCC, ACT Alliance and LWF: COP31 must fund climate justice

Creation is a sacred gift, not a commodity. With this conviction, the World Council of Churches (WCC), ACT Alliance, and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) speak together ahead of COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026. The churches call on governments to deliver climate justice: cut emissions and pay the finance they promised. A woman gazes out the window of her flooded house during a flooding in Meulaboh, Indonesia. Flooding in the region has grown worse because of climate change and the proliferation of palm oil plantations. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/Life on Earth 6 November 2026 In its Emissions Gap Report 2026, published on 21 October, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that the world is almost certain to go above 1.5°C of warming. To return to 1.5°C by 2100, global emissions must fall by 18 percent by 2030, 45 percent by 2035, and 69 percent by 2040, compared with 2025 levels. “Our communities and the future of our children and life on Earth must come before corporate interests and geopolitical agendas. Our future is not for sale. Wealthy industrialised countries, whose historical emissions have contributed most to the climate emergency and who have greater capacity to act, must take the lead and commit to an equitable, orderly and rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas,” said Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC general secretary. “For the churches, climate finance is a matter of justice, not charity. High-income, high-emitting countries must deliver the 300 billion US dollars a year by 2035 agreed at COP29. Keeping to responsibilities, mandates and commitments made to protect the climate system under the UN Climate Convention and its instruments such as the Paris Agreement is a matter of urgency, equity, and justice. This has been ruled on by the International Court of Justice,” said Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, ACT Alliance general secretary. “Care for creation flows from the core calling of the church. Churches in the countries most exposed to the climate crisis already carry its weight every day, and young people tell us clearly that climate justice is intergenerational justice. At COP31, governments must keep the promises they have made and protect the most vulnerable, because whatever we do for the least of our sisters and brothers, we do for Christ,” said Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt, LWF general secretary.  In Antalya, the delegations of the WCC, ACT Alliance, and the LWF will follow the negotiations side by side and meet every morning and early evening for joint briefings. On 15 November, delegates will pray together at the COP31 Ecumenical Service at St Alypios’ Church. WCC at COP31 Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034) WhatsApp channel: Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC news: Talanoa for COP31: creation is a gift, not a marketplace

The World Council of Churches (WCC) co-convened an online interfaith gathering on 4 November in the spirit of the Talanoa Dialogue. Talanoa is a Pacific method that asks three questions: where are we, where do we want to go, and how do we get there. Dozens of people of different faiths met five days before COP31 opens in Antalya, Türkiye. COP31, Brazil 2025. Global faith communities gather - both in person in Belém and online - to bring ethical and spiritual voices to climate justice negotiations. Photo: © Valter Hugo Muniz/WCC 06 November 2026 "The temple of creation is not a marketplace; it's a gift to all life on earth, one that we are called to share and care for," said Rev. Henrik Grape, WCC senior advisor for Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice. Grape co-chairs the Interfaith Liaison Committee to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The committee, which brings faith traditions into UN climate talks, organized the gathering. Rev. Charissa Suli, president of the Uniting Church in Australia and representing the Pacific Conference of Churches, answered how to move from ethical reflection to ethical action. Pointing to the Good Samaritan, who "committed his own resources," she said love of neighbor "places responsibility on us, and asks, what are we willing to risk, share, and change?" Sister Maureen Goodman of the Brahma Kumaris said COP decisions should be driven by "the conscience of what is needed for humanity at this time," not by politics. Rev. Fred Milligan, retired Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor and environmental activist, said faith reminds people that human beings are not God, which makes people accountable. "This humility and repentance is the first step, I believe, in rebuilding trust" among traditions and nations, he said. Elena Cedillo of the Lutheran World Federation welcomed the afternoon session in Spanish. Report-backs spoke of accountability, climate finance, and spirituality. Closing the sessions, Grape said participants at COP31 would carry the message "as a call and spread it." During COP31, the Interfaith Liaison Committe will invite its list to a further dialogue. The conversation moves to Antalya. A WCC delegation will advocate at COP31 from 9–20 November as part of the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034) Follow the delegation on the COP31 hub at oikoumene.org/cop31 and on the WhatsApp channel. Interfaith gathering in the spirit of Talanoa Dialogue at COP31 (2026) WCC at COP31 Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034) WhatsApp channel: Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action #COP31 What can faith bring to COP31? Voices from the Interfaith Talanoa Dialogue See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

WCC NEWS: Video shows how Serbian student movement became “an active hope”

In the two years following the tragic collapse of the concrete canopy of the main railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia, students in the nation led peaceful demonstrations calling for accountability, responsibility, and justice. SE Hoppa över navigeringen Sök Logga in An active hope – on Serbian student movement 05 November 2026 In a 6-minute video, Prof. Dr Andrej Jeftic, director of the World Council of Churches Commission on Faith and Order; and Tijana Petkovic-Bertsch, from the Serbian Orthodox Church, and a commission member, reflect on the outcomes of the students’ efforts. Petkovic-Bertsch commended the students for their courage and for connecting across differences. “It’s not just a passive hope. It is an active hope. It is a possibility. It is action. It is an idea, and it is love that connected people,” she said. See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

EarthBeat Weekly: UN summit offers progress check on preserving nature

UN biodiversity summit offers progress check on preserving nature   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change November 6, 2026   The United Nations biodiversity summit, COP17, took place Oct. 19-31 in Yerevan, Armenia. (UN Biodiversity/Mike Muzurakis) In the days before Tuesday's midterm elections in the U.S., officials with nearly 200 other countries were poring through the final stages of draft documents and multilateral debates about how to ramp up global action to protect and preserve nature.  The biennial United Nations biodiversity summit, known as COP17, was held this year in Yerevan, Armenia. Among the 9,400 participants were more than 100 religious leaders and 50-plus faith-based organizations. That included Catholics, as well, with the Vatican (though, along with the U.S., not official parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity) sending its apostolic nuncio for Armenia alongside numerous Catholic organizations, including the Missionary Society of St. Columban.  "Our work is really reminding parties and the whole process that this is more than just a scientific, technocratic issue for the world to care about," Amy Echeverria, the Columbans' international coordinator for justice, peace and integrity of creation, told me.  Echeverria was present in Yerevan for the entirety of the two weeks of COP17. As I reported today at EarthBeat, the main focus there was a progress report on how countries were doing in meeting the series of goals and targets they set in a landmark agreement in 2022 to reverse the accelerating loss of biodiversity happening today. Often dubbed "the Paris Agreement for nature," the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework established four goals (to complete by 2050) and 23 targets (to complete by 2030) to halt biodiversity loss and restore natural ecosystems around the globe.  A report issued before the start of COP17 found that while progress is happening, it's not enough, and countries collectively are off track to meet any of the 2030 targets at this midway point. That includes central aims to designate at least 30% of lands and waters for conservation and to reform and redirect $500 billion in subsidies for environmentally damaging activities, like extracting fossil fuels. "Frustration is real because we have the science, because we know what we need to do [and] the trajectory that we're on," Echeverria told me. The final outcomes at COP17 sought to refocus and redouble global efforts, including around mobilizing greater financing for biodiversity conservation. As with the U.N. climate talks, financing always is a central sticking point.  Whether the Yerevan Pathway — one of the deals countries adopted — yields greater implementation of pledges and plans will be known in the coming years.  "We just don't have the luxury of despair," Echeverria said. Read more: Faith leaders resist despair as UN summit shows slow progress on conservation goals What else is new on EarthBeat:   Religious orders in El Salvador seek to protect community from mega-prison’s pollution by Rhina Guidos At event tied to Season of Creation, Catholic sisters and Franciscan friars in El Salvador support a rural community fighting water contamination and a landfill near CECOT, which can hold up to 40,000 inmates.  Read more here »   At Cadillac Mountain, a missing Wabanaki marker and the fight over what national parks should tell by Jessie Wardarski, Associated Press Some of the signs removed from Acadia were developed over years of partnerships with organizations including Friends of Acadia, the Schoodic Institute and the Native Plant Trust — with consultation from citizens of the Wabanaki Nations. Read more here »   When it comes to creation, we need to be more pious by Daniel P. Horan St. Bonaventure's characterization of St. Francis' ecological piety highlights virtue of kinship. Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: What a historic 'blue wave' midterm means for climate action —Staff reports at Grist Top clean energy wins from the midterm elections —Kathryn Krawczyk for Canary Media The results are in: Voters hate data centers —Vittoria Elliott and Molly Taft for Wired Babies more likely to have heart defects from Louisiana's areas with industrial pollution, study finds —Sara Sneath for the Guardian EPA pulls the plug on regulating air pollution from giant livestock and poultry operations —Georgina Gustin for Inside Climate News Is El Niño making storms and flash floods in the Southwest worse? —Adithi Ramakrishnan for the Associated Press Rich countries fall far short on climate adaptation funding, UN says —Virginia Furness for Reuters The EPA is quietly killing its web archive —Rachel Santarsiero for Mother Jones William Nordhaus dies; Nobel winner influenced climate policy —Lydia DePillis for The New York Times Final Beat: In my report on the COP17 biodiversity summit, I mention that some scientists believe the Earth is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event. Unlike the prior five events (the last one wiping out the dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago), this mass extinction hasn't been triggered by natural phenomena but instead by human activities — by us.  Just as I was reporting this story, I stumbled upon an episode of the PBS show "Human Footprint" that explores the same topic. The episode was titled "Fossils in the Asphalt: Unearthing LA's ancient past" and looks at the fates of long-extinct species through the fossils and remains trapped for thousands of years in the La Brea tarpits where Los Angeles sits today.  You can watch a preview and clips of the episode here, and check your local PBS listings to see when it might air again in your area.  As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.   Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Looking to Hire? Offering Retreats? Selling Books? Place an Ad in NCR's Online Classified Section for Only $75 per Month!   Advertisement