After days of long, intense marathon sessions of negotiation, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) concluded in the early hours of Sunday morning in Baku, Azerbaijan. The negotiated outcomes included a new $300 billion international climate finance goal, known as the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG).
On Aug. 13, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) held a White House Faith Leaders Convening on Climate, Clean Energy and Environmental Justice.
During the first town hall offered Thursday by the Office of the General Assembly ahead of the 226th General Assembly, more than 30 Presbyterians gathered online to, as host Jessica Maudlin said, “engage with each other about your experiences with Creation care and climate change in your context.”
The belief that people of faith have an obligation to make their voices heard in the fight against climate change was expressed during a webinar by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Presbyterians for Earth Care.
The provisional total for the 28th Conference on the Parties (COP28) suggests that 97,372 delegates registered to attend the summit in person. With a further 3,074 attending virtually, this takes the overall total to 100,446. These numbers easily make the Dubai event the largest COP in history. The first climate COP – held in Berlin in 1995 – had 3,969 delegates.
Among those nearly 100,000 delegates were four Presbyterians, including Alethia White, World Mission’s Co-Regional Liaison for Northern and Central Europe, for whom this event was a first. “Some of the most beautiful parts of COP for me was the way in which it is, in a lot of ways, a microcosm of the whole globe, really. And we are all here because we are committed to caring about this issue of climate change.”
A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) delegation has returned from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt and is encouraging others in the denomination to find ways to show their concern for the environment.
Several members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joined other faith leaders from around the world Thursday to call for bold, ambitious decisions on the part of world leaders. Billed as the Implementation COP, these negotiations have stalled, with the consequences of inaction being dire.
Presbyterians will be among those traveling to Egypt for a major global climate conference that could lead to world leaders taking collective action on critical topics, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and perhaps compensating developing countries burdened by climate-related loss and damage.
From celebrating World Wetlands Day and engaging in community advocacy to raising their own butterflies and growing their own herbs and spices, Dorchester Presbyterian Church in Summerville, South Carolina, shows love for God’s Creation.
