Catch up on the news as COP29 enters overtime

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

November 22, 2024

A woman passes by a #COP29 sign during the U.N. climate change conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 11, 2024. (OSV News/Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

At the time you received this newsletter, the United Nations climate change summit known as COP29 had entered into overtime.

Scheduled to end Nov. 22, the Azerbaijan presidency announced late in the day in Baku that the conference's closing plenary would not convene earlier than 10 a.m. on Nov. 22 (or 1 am eastern).

Missed deadlines have become the norm at the end of the U.N. climate conferences, reflecting missed deadlines the nearly 200 countries as a whole have accumulated in meeting targets for reducing emissions and financing global responses to climate change.

When COP29 does reach its conclusion, expect to find coverage at EarthBeat of the outcomes and reactions from Catholic organizations.

In the meantime, take some time to revisit EarthBeat's coverage of what's been happening in Baku, led by the on-the-ground reports from Doreen Ajiambo, the Africa and Middle East correspondent for Global Sisters Report.

Today, Ajiambo reported the perspectives of Catholic sisters and women organizations, who urged that climate finance — the main focus at COP29 — not overlook the unique needs of women and girls, who are disproportionately vulnerable to climate impacts.

"Empowering women and girls has to be more than just words, and policymakers must push for implementation, alongside development of actionable and coherent policies in areas that are lacking," said UNANIMA, a U.N.-based organization representing 23 women religious congregations, in its COP29 policy paper.

UNANIMA highlighted that climate emergencies and other crises have tended to widen the gender gap in social protection, particularly for women and girls in the Global South.

According to U.N. Women, only 3% of climate-related development assistance in 2022 included objectives aimed at promoting gender equality, even though 16 million more women than men are at risk of falling into poverty under worst-case climate scenarios.

Catholic and other faith groups also pressed for world leaders in Baku to deliver a new climate finance target commensurate with what is needed to not only mitigate climate change to less dangerous temperatures, but adapt to its impacts and fund recovery from disasters that have already devastated communities.

An economic study has put that figure at $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 in funding for developing countries from developed nations, banks and the private sector.

At the midway point, faith leaders joined in protests urging negotiators to deliver a robust finance goal.

"We will continue reminding the responsible countries of their moral responsibility, holding them accountable and making our demands known," Lydia Lehlogonolo Machaka, energy and extractivism officer with the international Catholic development network CIDSE, told Ajiambo.

Faith leaders also bemoaned that while wealthy countries have been reluctant to commit to climate financing, many are currently directing trillions of dollars toward weapons and wars.

Global military spending reached $2.44 trillion in 2023, including $916 billion by the U.S. alone. It was the ninth consecutive year military expenditures hit an all-time high, a period that aligned with the 10 hottest years on record.

"Many governments prioritize military expenditures over addressing the climate crisis, despite the fact that war often exacerbates both humanitarian and environmental destruction," said Fr. Iyan Daquin Iyo of the OMI Kenyan Mission and part of the VIVAT International delegation.

On top of trillions for militaries, countries in 2023 spent $620 billion on subsidies for fossil fuels — the primary sources of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. In contrast, they spent $70 billion on clean energy.

The U.S. has been in COP29's spotlight not just for its military spending, but the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump's looming return to the White House has cast a shadow over the U.N. climate summit, Catholic officials from around the world told Ajiambo.

They worry the U.S. president-elect this time will not only halt the country's progress in slashing heat-trapping emissions — including again pulling out of the Paris Agreement — but undermine international efforts in the process.

"There is a lot of fear among delegates, especially faith leaders," said Rose Omariba, Laudato Si Movement Kenya's chapter leader. "We need to continue making the noise about climate change so that we can have Trump see that the environmental crisis is real, not a myth."

What else is new on EarthBeat:

Climate action at COP29 needed for humanity and our 'companions along the way'

by Tobias Winright

We need to listen to what birds have to say — to preach — to us and how it is we who need an "ecological conversion." An important part of this conversion will be safeguarding species in danger of extinction.

What's happening in other climate news:

Trump picks fracking firm CEO Chris Wright to be energy secretary —Evan Halper, Maxine Joselow, Maegan Vazquez and Josh Dawsey for the Washington Post

Automakers to Trump: Please require us to sell electric vehicles —Coral Davenport and Jack Ewing for The New York Times

The Biden administration is trying to throw a Hail Mary to save the Colorado River before Trump takes over —Ella Nilsen for CNN

Subways, buses and bike lanes scored billions in local ballot wins —Kendra Pierre-Louis for Bloomberg

Climate change drives up insurance costs — and missed mortgage payments —Mario Alejandro Ariza for Floodlight

Drought is an immigration issue —Zoë Schlanger for The Atlantic

$375M Indigenous-led conservation deal just signed in the Northwest Territories —Chloe Williams for The Narwhal

Final Beat:

Thanksgiving is nearly upon us, and we at EarthBeat and National Catholic Reporter give our gratitude for you, our readers.

We will forgo the EarthBeat Weekly newsletter next week, which so happens to coincide with the shopping day known as "Black Friday." Or for those who eschew the stores and e-commerce sites, it's a day to spend outside.

In one of the first-ever EarthBeat Weekly's, I wrote about the #OptOutside movement for the day after Thanksgiving — coincidentally, started by an outdoors retailer, REI — and how its message parallels some of the passages from Pope Francis in his encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."

In Laudato Si', Francis addressed "a whirlwind of needless buying and spending" and how taking time to experience, and appreciate, the beauty of nature are key steps "if we want to bring about deep change."

Some food for thought for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Brian Roewe
Environment Correspondent
National Catholic Reporter
broewe@ncronline.org
Instagram: @broewe_ncr