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What Catholics said about the COP30 climate summit
December 5, 2025
 Activists hang banners during a demonstration at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit Nov. 21 in Belém, Brazil. (AP/Andre Penner)In the last edition of this newsletter, the United Nations climate change conference known as COP30 was on the cusp of extending into extra time. Stalled negotiations and a minor fire in the "blue zone" venue where the talks were taking place combined to indeed push the summit to an additional day. When it concluded in the evening of Nov. 22, it ranked as the 11th longest in the 30-year history of U.N. climate negotiations, according to CarbonBrief. The first COP held near a tropical rainforest — the Brazilian Amazon — COP30 drew hundreds of Catholics to Belém, representing 80-plus organizations and more than 30 countries. Among them were eight cardinals and more than 40 bishops. It was the largest church contingent many participants could recall, driven in no small part by the Brazilian bishops' conference. Many of the Catholics in attendance closely followed the negotiations, which marked 10 years since countries adopted the Paris Agreement, the first pact where nearly 200 countries each committed to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. A decade later, the checkpoint that was COP30 showed limited progress in slowing global warming. Instead of forecasts of temperature rise reaching 3.5 degrees Celsius, the world is now on track for 2.3 C-2.8 C of warming — still short of the 1.5 C goal in the Paris accord, a threshold that exceeding, scientists say, will expose millions more people to catastrophic climate-related disasters like more extreme storms, droughts, flooding and wildfires. How countries responded to that trajectory was an area of close scrutiny for Catholics at COP30, as Eduardo Campos Lima reported throughout COP30 from Belém. One promising spark came in a proposal from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the development of two roadmaps to phase out fossil fuels — the primary source of emissions — and to end deforestation. In the end, nations could not reach consensus and neither roadmap was officially adopted. The final documents also omitted any reference to fossil fuels, though for the first time did acknowledge the likelihood of an "overshoot" of the 1.5 C target, which scientists forecast could come in the next decade. "COP30 left us with an outcome that refuses to confront the fuel feeding this global fire and withholds the financial resources needed to put the flames out," said Lisa Sullivan, senior program officer on integral ecology for the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. Sullivan and other Catholics discouraged by the agreements that countries did, and didn't, reach at COP30 drew glimmers of hope from a convening set for next year in Colombia, where at least 24 countries will gather outside formal U.N. processes specifically to discuss a phaseout of fossil fuels, including a potential treaty. "This may prove to be the beginning of a real solution," Sullivan told me, calling the countries that have stated their intention to participate a "multilateralism of the willing." Bishop Juan Carlos Barreto of the Diocese of Soacha, Colombia, and head of Caritas Colombia, added: "Continuing the debate on climate change without addressing the issue of fossil fuels in a direct and forceful manner is practically resigning ourselves to having financial discourse impose itself over the ethical imperatives of protecting the planet and defending humanity." The Laudato Si' Movement, a lay-led network of 900-plus Catholic organizations, for several years has supported the prospects of a fossil fuel phaseout treaty, and have advocated for the Vatican to lend its support, as well. "We really hope that the Holy See will use its political capital to put its weight now behind the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty," said Lorna Gold, Laudato Si' Movement executive director. "We feel there's no time to lose now, and that the wind is in the sails of the citizens and in the coalition of the willing who are prepared to move forward with greater ambition toward tackling climate injustice," she said. A lot more happened at COP30, and Catholics had much to say about it. You can find it all in the article below that Eduardo and I reported. Read more: UN climate summit in the Amazon falls short on fossil fuel phaseout plan (P.S. We know there was a lot of news and information at COP30 to process and track, so the next section will re-highlight some of EarthBeat's coverage. You can find all our reports here.)
A recap of EarthBeat coverage of COP30:
 by Eduardo Campos Lima While Brazil hosts the United Nations climate change conference, known as COP30, in Belém, Nov. 10-21, church leaders intend to bring a powerful faith presence there.
 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.
 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.
 by Eduardo Campos Lima The joint appeal calls for an immediate halt on fossil fuel exploration and for the taxation of endeavors already in progress.
 by Brian Roewe A cultural change is badly needed to shake climate negotiations from its too-prevalent low ambition, say people of faith involved in the Global Ethical Stocktake.
 by Doreen Ajiambo With COP30 underway in Brazil, faith leaders say the time for polite appeals is over. From Turkana's dry fields to the Amazon's burning forests, the church is turning to action and demanding world leaders keep their promises.
 by Doreen Ajiambo As leaders prepare to meet in Belém, Brazil, women living the climate emergency in Kenya and across Africa are demanding global action, gender justice and investment in local adaptation. What's happening in other climate news:
Trump returns to gasoline as fuel of choice for cars, gutting Biden's climate policy —Lisa Friedman, Maxine Joselow and Jack Ewing for The New York Times Deadly Asian floods are no fluke. They're a climate warning, scientists say —Aniruddha Ghosal and Anton L. Delgado for the Associated Press The grid storage industry set a wild goal for 2025 — and then crushed it —Julian Spector for Canary Media Whitmer joins Democratic governors calling on the EPA to monitor microplastics in drinking water —Kyle Davidson for Michigan Advance New analysis provides more evidence that heat standards save lives —Liza Gross for Inside Climate News Final Beat:
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Friday, December 5, 2025
EarthBeat Weekly: What Catholics said about COP30 climate summit
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EarthBeat Weekly: What Catholics said about COP30 climate summit
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