Three cardinals write to UN about climate justice

Cardinal Jaime Spengler OFM, President of CELAM (Latin America and the Caribbean), Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao from FABC (Asia) and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu OFM Cap, president of SECAM (Africa and Madagascar), signed the letter to António Guterres ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference – Belém (COP30) scheduled for later this year. 

The letter noted that the document Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solutions, prepared jointly by the Churches of the Global South, had already been presented to Pope Leo XIV and to local churches.

“Inspired by both Laudato Si’ by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV’s call to live an integral ecology with justice, we call for a profound ecological conversion,” the letter stated.

“Ten years since the publication of Laudato Si’ and the signing of the Paris Agreement, the countries of the world have not responded with the necessary urgency.

“The Church will not remain silent. We will continue to raise our voice alongside science, civil society and the most vulnerable, with truth, courage and consistency, until justice is done.”

The letter demanded that “rich nations must pay their ecological debt with fair climate finance without further indebting the Global South, to recover losses and damages in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania”.

The letter called for the promotion of “economic degrowth” and the phasing out of fossil fuels, as well as ensuring sufficient climate finance – to recover losses and damages and build resilient communities – without further indebting the Global South.

“We remain confident that genuine dialogue, grounded in truth and justice, can guide the international community towards the profound transformations required. The urgency of this moment leaves no room for delay, compromise or half-measures: may our common efforts at COP30 and beyond foster real hope, safeguard creation and ensure a dignified future for the generations to come,” the letter stated.

FULL STORY

Letter of the Bishops of the Global South to the UN (SECAM)

UN Climate Change Conference – Belém, November 2025 | UNFCCC (UNFCCC)