GreenFaith - Our Assessment of COP28

I’m writing you a longer email than normal to describe the good work of our team at COP28, share our assessment, and point toward our next steps. Thank you for reading! Proud. Of. Our. Team. Our GreenFaith team from Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and Indonesia, has just returned home from COP28. I could not be more proud of what they accomplished. I urge you to read this blog by Meryne Warah, our Global Organizing Director who led our COP delegation. Our team advocated for a rapid fossil fuel phaseout, a massive upscaling of renewable energy, and commitments to the loss and damage fund for climate-vulnerable nations at levels commensurate with the harm they are suffering. These positions are an ethical, humane response to the emergency we face.   We re-asserted our support for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, now formally supported by 12 countries, and organized the only religiously-based event on this issue featuring speakers from Pacific Islands, Africa, Europe, and India—and from a range of faiths. This community of Treaty supporters is an important reason that a rapid fossil fuel phaseout became an unavoidable focus of the negotiations. We expressed our dismay when the COP President was found to have used the access to governments worldwide as an opportunity to negotiate oil and gas deals. We joined in the collective gasp when he was caught on tape ridiculing the idea that science called for a fossil fuel phaseout. We grieved together and voiced our outrage that more than 2,400 fossil fuel industry representatives participated in COP, more than the representation for the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined. Our Assessment of COP28 Most of you will have seen headlines about COP28’s concluding call for a “transition” away from fossil fuels. While such a transition is necessary, we have grave reservations about this COP’s concluding statement for three reasons. It is not enough. The COP statement is non-binding, non-enforceable, and non-specific. There are no timetables or benchmarks. By comparison, in the face of COVID19, governments committed trillions of dollars within months. When Russia invaded Ukraine, national spending in the US and Europe surged immediately. Governments know how to act when they face a crisis which they consider a priority. In contrast, this year’s COP produced ”a purely voluntary commitment by fossil fuel companies to better capture methane, a potent greenhouse gas we absolutely must contain.” Non-binding statements and voluntary pledges are an insufficient response to any moral responsibility, let alone an existential threat. It is not trustworthy. COP has become a venue too often used for promises made to be broken. For example, in 2009 wealthy nations pledged to commit $100 billion annually in climate finance by 2020 to assist developing countries. To date, Oxfam has reported that they have provided less than a third of that amount. Two years ago at COP26, banks and asset managers were showered with praise for pledging to decarbonize their balance sheets by 2050. When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused oil and gas prices to spike, they ditched their commitment. The climate crisis requires what all our faiths require: reliable commitments, not posturing before the cameras. It is not timely. Emissions continue to rise while tipping points draw nearer. It is widely known that nations must dramatically accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels in order to avoid temperatures surging beyond 1.5 degrees. Beyond that level, “climate disasters will become so extreme that people will not be able to adapt. Basic components of the Earth system will be fundamentally, irrevocably altered. Heat waves, famines and infectious diseases could claim millions of additional lives by century’s end.” In the face of such danger, human decency requires serious deadlines. Non-specific statements designed to facilitate equivocation are immoral. What Lies Ahead In the coming days, we will write to you with our plans for our community’s global, multi-faith response. While the challenge of the current situation weighs heavily on us all, our GreenFaith team is clear about what is needed and more determined than ever. We believe that faith communities around the globe can and must do more - much more. We’ll do everything we can to make this happen. Many people ask what gives us hope. Our answer is clear: the growing number of GreenFaith members who are standing up from their pews, meditation cushions and prayer rugs and stepping into public action. We see an increasing resolve among everyday people from every imaginable spiritual background who have realized that the time is now and the answer is courage. History teaches that when people of faith rise together in peaceful, disruptive public witness, the world changes. Stay tuned, and get ready. In defiant hope, Rev. Fletcher Harper Executive Director P.S. Please support our work by donating here. Even $10 goes a long way to support our grassroots faith organizers.