WCC News: Gathered in Colombia, faith communities back fossil fuel treaty

Something shifted in Santa Marta, northern Colombia, on 24 April. Faith communities gathered at the Colegio Diocesano San José for the Meeting of Spiritualities for Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, an ecumenical and interfaith gathering convened as part of the First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, hosted by the governments of Colombia and the Netherlands. Their purpose was concrete: align their collective voice behind a binding Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Fossil Fuels, and deliver a signed declaration to the government representatives present. Photo: WCC 30 April 2026 The World Council of Churches (WCC) was among the organisers and participants. Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, did not soften the diagnosis: the climate emergency is not merely an environmental problem. “We are not living in the Anthropocene,” she said. “We are living in the "Capitolocene," an era shaped by an extractivist capitalism that treats the Earth as a storehouse of assets and a field for endless profit.” Peralta's contribution was both theological and political, a call for spiritualities of sufficiency, resistance, and transformation – a turning away from the logic of accumulation toward what she called “enough."  Drawing on the WCC's Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034), she invited those gathered into a "prophetic uprising. “Churches [and people of good will] are called to rise with prophetic urgency, speak with a voice of moral clarity, and embody a new Exodus – an exodus from the captivity of greed, a departure from an extractive economy, and a journey toward the freedom of a restored creation." Churches and ecumenical partners in Colombia helped make the gathering possible. The Presbyterian Church of Colombia, a WCC member church, contributed actively, with Rev. Milton Mejía serving on the local coordinating committee, and students from the Reformed University joining the coalition's call, a generational presence at the heart of the Encuentro. Dr Luz Dary Carmona, vice minister of Environmental Territorial Planning at Colombia's Ministry of Environment, insisted the transition reaches far beyond energy. It demands a transformation of the productive model and the very logic of development. She quoted Colombian president Gustavo Petro: "The life of the U'wa people is worth more than oil." Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development and (on her left)  Jocabed Reina Solano Miselis, executive director of Memoria Indígena Panamá and an Indigenous Guna theologian at the meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia. Photo: WCC Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and former general secretary of Amnesty International, was direct: "It is like leaving a tap running. Do you mop the floor or turn off the tap? First, you turn off the tap. Unless we shut off fossil fuels, we cannot deal with climate change." Jocabed Reina Solano Miselis, executive director of Memoria Indígena Panamá and an Indigenous Guna theologian, was clear: "A transition without transformation is a transition without a soul. Without Indigenous rights, it does not respect life." As the afternoon closed, more than 20 organisations, among them the WCC, signed and formally handed over the Call from the Ecumenical, Interfaith and Eco-Spiritual Coalition of the Global South to the governments of Colombia and the Netherlands, committing to an immediate end to new coal, oil, and gas development.  As the coalition looks toward COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, what was signed in Santa Marta is both a commitment and an invitation for churches, spiritual communities, and people of goodwill to keep walking together toward the fossil-free future they declared possible. A call from the ecumenical, interfaith and eco-spiritual coalition of the global south In Santa Marta, Colombia gathering, WCC joins global call to end fossil fuels (Feature story, 27 April 2026) 2022 WCC Assembly Statement - The Living Planet: Seeking a Just and Sustainable Global Community WCC executive committee statement, November 2025 — Proclaiming Jubilee for People and Planet Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action landing page Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative Belém Declaration on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels 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