EarthBeat Weekly: Catholic coalition stress moral urgency at COP30 climate summit

Catholic coalition stresses moral urgency at COP30 climate summit   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change November 21, 2025   Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends the opening of the General Plenary of Leaders on Nov. 6 during the United Nations climate change conference COP30 in Belém, Brazil. (COP30/Antonio Scorza) Friday is the scheduled final day at COP30, the United Nations climate change conference being held at the edge of the Amazon rainforest in Belém, Brazil.  Scheduled, but likely not the end. U.N. climate summits are notorious for extending into extra days as countries grapple in the final hours with reaching agreement on final texts and outcomes. Under U.N. procedures, decisions must be reached by consensus, meaning a single objecting nation can derail a deal. Adding to any potential delay in Brazil was a fire at the main venue Thursday that forced evacuations and a suspension of meetings and negotiations. The U.N. reported no major injuries, while 13 people were treated for smoke inhalation. Proceedings picked up as normal on Friday.  In the preceding days, a large and active Catholic coalition has wielded a combination of moral persuasions and firsthand accounts from the frontlines of climate change to compel countries to commit to ambitious levels of action and financing in line with the science to avert as much suffering as possible from worsening climate impacts like more extreme storms and droughts, wildfires and flooding.  A guiding document has been an unprecedented joint appeal from the continental bishops' conferences for Latin America, Africa and Asia.  The three cardinals who head each of the episcopal federations officially presented the 34-page document — titled "A call for climate justice and the common home: Ecological conversion, transformation and resistance to false solutions" — to the international community during a session Nov. 13 inside the COP's "blue zone" where negotiations are taking place, as Eduardo Campos Lima reported from Belém. Brazilian Cardinal Jaime Spengler, Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo and Indian Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao were joined by Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that convenes the climate COPs and under which the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015. During the session, the three cardinals outlined the document's denunciations of the ways climate change is harming life in their parts of the world, emphasizing how already vulnerable communities often bear the first and worst impacts of climate-related catastrophes. "Our letter received some receptivity," Spengler told Campos Lima at a Catholic symposium organized by the Brazilian bishops' conference. "The text challenges [the Global North], but it also opens ways for common constructions. It's a tough reality, which demands courageous reactions." Read more: ​​Letter from Global South bishops for climate justice echoes among COP30 delegations Another unique initiative has also garnered attention, and support, from Catholics at COP30.  As the host country leading the proceedings, the government of Brazil launched what they called the Global Ethical Stocktake —  what's been called a groundbreaking initiative that aims to bring morality and ethics more fully into the discourse around climate change that's typically dominated by political, technological and economic frames. The Global Ethical Stocktake seeks to provide insights to a central challenge that has plagued climate negotiations for decades: If humans know what needs to be done to address climate change and already possess many of the tools and technologies to do so, why are they not doing it? Karenna Gore, executive director of the Center of Earth Ethics at Union Theological Center in New York and co-leader of the North American dialogue, one of six regional dialogues under the stocktake, told me that ethical and spiritual dimensions have too often been given "short shrift" in climate proceedings but are in fact vital in moving people and societies to act. "Ethics is most powerful when a deeply felt and more and more widely shared sense of right and wrong is out of step with both laws and social norms in a society," Gore said.  "Most of what is causing the climate crisis is perfectly legal, and it's even socially encouraged. So if we're going to make a change, we actually have to draw from a deeper well of conscience, of values, of wisdom. And historically … faith and religion very much fed that in many ways." Read more: COP30's global ethics initiative aims to break chronic malaise on climate action     What else is new on EarthBeat:   Urging concrete actions, Pope Leo XIV calls out 'failing' political will on climate change by Associated Press For the one-in-three people extremely vulnerable to impacts from rising global temperatures, "climate change is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity," Pope Leo said in his second message to the COP30 United Nations climate change conference in Brazil. Read more here »   At UN climate talks at gateway to Amazon, Catholics stress forest protections by Eduardo Campos Lima "COP30 is a signal of hope, but we cannot fool ourselves. The Amazon, like Pope Francis said in Puerto Maldonado [in 2018], is facing its most serious threat," Archbishop Roque Paloschi of Porto Velho said. Read more here »   Catholics join tens of thousands in march for climate justice at COP30 in Brazil by Eduardo Campos Lima A climate march drew people from all over the world into the streets of Belém, Brazil, at the midpoint of the COP30 U.N. climate change conference. It was the first massive public demonstration at a COP in four years. Read more here »   Q&A with Caritas leader on finding hope in face of devastating climate crisis by Brian Roewe Caritas projects offer a sign of hope that solutions to climate change, whether mitigating heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions or adapting to impacts like more severe heatwaves and storms, can in fact work. Read more here »   After hurricane, mosquito-transmitted diseases pile on top of Cuba's troubles by Rhina Guidos The viral illness comes on the heels of Cuba's slow recovery from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall Oct. 29 in Santiago de Cuba in the eastern part of the island as a Category 3 storm. Read more here »   What's happening in other climate news: Nations and environmental groups slam proposals at UN climate talks, calling them too weak —Seth Borenstein, Anton L. Delgado and Melina Walling for the Associated Press Trump's anti-green agenda could lead to 1.3 million more climate deaths. The poorest countries will be impacted most —Sharon Lerner for ProPublica At COP30 in Brazil, countries plan to armor themselves against a warming world —Zoya Teirstein for Grist Trump plans to open more than a billion acres of U.S. waters to drilling —Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman for The New York Times A new unifying issue: Just about everyone hates data centers —Dan Gearino for Inside Climate News One of America's most dangerous volcanoes will soon power homes —Nicolas Rivero for the Washington Post Electrify your home with our handy roundup before tax credits expire —Alison F. Takemura for Canary Media Final Beat: With the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. approaching next week, this newsletter will take a break, but not before offering gratitude for our readers and subscribers who help make this newsletter and NCR's faith-and-environment reporting at EarthBeat possible.  Have an idea for a future story, or a subject you'd like us to investigate? Drop us a message at earthbeat@ncronline.org.  And watch for coverage from Eduardo Campos Lima and me on Catholic reactions to the decisions and outcomes at COP30 … whenever they may come. We'll return in December. Until then, thanks for reading EarthBeat.   Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Discover Sacred Gifts for the season — prayerful cards, prints, and artwork from the Carmelite Sisters of Reno. Explore spirituality and social justice at Xavier University. Graduate theology degrees and certificates. Online options. 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