WCC News: As climate change marches on, African churches keep the momentum

As the global climate crisis accelerates faster than collective response and new conflicts slice attention, African church leaders are highlighting the need to increase action, as the emergency hurts their congregations. Kesinary Vinkhumbo harvests corn on her farm in Edundu, Malawi. She and other farmers in the village have benefited from intercropping and crop rotation practices they learned from the Malawi Farmer-to-Farmer Agro-Ecology project of the Ekwendeni Mission Hospital AIDS Program, a program of the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. Photo: Paul Jeffrey/Life on Earth 11 August 2026 The impacts are being felt in extreme temperatures, severe droughts, devastating floods, and accelerating vector and water-borne diseases across the continent. “We have to scale up our voice. When we have spoken, it doesn't mean that we've been heard,” said Rev. Nicta Lubaale, general secretary of the Organization of African Instituted Churches in an interview. “There are conflicts, which have global attention. You hear much more of what is happening in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia. So, certainly faith communities have to work much more to keep the momentum.” Lubaale warned that climate change threatened Africa's food sovereignty, as it impacted productivity, especially for smallholder farmers, livestock keepers, and pastoralist communities. Such impacts include crops drying up due to insufficient rainfall, flash floods sweeping away farms, and animal pastures burnt out by extreme temperatures. According to the leader, the lived experiences combined with science, generated a lot of action among the faith communities and local farmers.  Dr Tinashe Gumbo, All Africa Conference of Churches programme executive for Ecological Justice, said the faith leaders were doing their best to support communities suffering the impacts of climate change. “They've been doing this through locally led initiatives. These are processes initiated at the local, national, and even at the community level by our network,” he said. According to the official, when engaging the local and national government and other stakeholders, the networks amplified both the voices of the churches and communities affected by the crisis. “We have been supporting them technically with some small grants, small amounts of resources, so that they are able to fulfil such initiatives,” he said. Rev. Jackie Makena, a theologian from the Methodist Church in Kenya and vice moderator of the World Council of Churches Commission of Faith and Order, said the churches across Africa had moved beyond awareness campaigns into climate action—supporting ecosystem restoration, climate-smart agriculture, disaster response, and advocacy. “But the crisis is accelerating faster than our collective response,” she warned. “Faith communities must remain prophetic, not only planting trees and increasing carbon sinks but also unearthing the root causes and challenging the systems driving ecological destruction. Caring for creation is inseparable from pursuing climate justice.” Adaptation for Africa is the most urgent issue, according to the church leaders and climate activists. Climate justice and loss and damage financing, equitable climate finance, and a just transition and carbon markets are the others. “Our communities still need financial and technical support to adapt to this new situation,” said Gumbo, adding that loss and damage was part reparative justice since Africa contributed less to the crisis compared to developed nations. “Developed countries need to support and compensate us for the loss and damage.” Lubaale said the larger part of adaptation financing in Africa was in the form of loans and that raised concerns. “The financing of adaptation shouldn't increase the indebtedness for African countries. It is not the countries being put into debt, but ordinary citizens,” he said. According to Gumbo, the conference welcomed the activation of the loss and damage fund but feared it was linked to traditional foreign aid. “This one should be new money. We do not want to later find ourselves with huge debts,” he said, cautioning that the pledges by developed countries voluntary. “We don't have any mechanism to make sure they contribute to the fund because it's voluntary. At the same time, we are still worried about the timeliness of the disbursement of the fund.” The faith leaders are also paying close attention to the carbon markets, according to Makena. She warns against carbon markets becoming a new form of resource extraction where African communities lose land rights while others continue emitting. “Africa's forests, peatlands, mangroves, and other carbon sinks must be protected because they regulate the global climate, not solely because they generate carbon credits,” said Makena. Care for creation and climate justice WCC publication "Hope for Children Through Climate Justice: Legal Tools to Hold Financiers Accountable" Learn more about Churches’ Commitments to Children and Climate-Responsible Banking 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