Interfaith Call to Action

Climate Justice

As the planet faces an existential emergency, we as people of faith are deeply concerned with the insufficient action and backsliding shown by the international community in addressing the dangerous consequences of climate change. Such consequences include species extinction, altered weather patterns, biodiversity collapse, and more. Ten years after the Paris Agreement, as climate science is attacked and the multilateral framework is questioned, now is the time to stand up for the planet, the most vulnerable, and future generations of all species of life. This call to action from the Interfaith Liaison Committee of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is grounded in the moral tenets of our respective religious traditions which collectively inspire our commitment to act for climate justice.

Climate Justice

We support a human rights-based approach to climate action that prioritises listening and responding to the voices of the poor, the marginalised, and those most vulnerable to the disproportionate impacts of climate change. Ten percent of the population is responsible for close to fifty percent of emissions. There is no justice when those least responsible are the first victims. We urge negotiators to listen to and amplify the voices of environmental human rights defenders, Indigenous advocates, youth, women, and those from countries and communities that are most at risk.

We assert that those with greater responsibility for climate change - governments and companies in the Global North - should take greater responsibility. We uphold the principles that polluters should pay and that countries have common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

A human rights-based approach should form the basis of national and international approaches to addressing climate change and prompt reform of the global financial and economic system. This means rethinking and changing prevailing norms and assumptions that depend on extractive economic growth and consumption as key priorities for humanity's success and shifting to a more reciprocal and sustainable structure that encompasses emissions reduction targets. Furthermore, a just transition must be provided for workers, efforts to restore nature should be undertaken, and commitments must be made to support restitution for climate induced loss and damage. Effective global governance is key for all of these efforts, reinforcing the value of multilateralism at a time when it faces profound threats.

Advancing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals

Climate justice necessitates a rapid and equitable phase out of fossil fuels, clearly delineated in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The NDC pledges we see today are insufficient for the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as collectively approved in the Paris Agreement. Achieving a better future requires ambitiously addressing the root causes of climate change and responding to the outcome of the global stocktake. We as faith communities support economic and societal changes in solidarity with the bold political decisions necessary to build a just and sustainable path forward.

Faith groups call collectively on our moral foundation to guide, urge, and support governments in committing to strong NDCs and ensuring their successful implementation.

Governments must exercise political will, leadership, and moral courage to raise ambition and create firm and transparent timetables to ensure targets are met. NDCs must include, at the very minimum:

• Clear and measurable emission reduction targets.
• Outcomes aligned with IPCC scientific findings and UNFCCC mandates.
• Strong monitoring, and reporting mechanisms with clear implementation strategies.
• Built in safeguards for transparency during creation and consultation processes to ensure representation of impacted groups.
• Policy targets tied to consequences if countries fail to achieve promised targets.

Climate Finance

Fulfilling their obligations under the Paris Agreement and the Baku to Belém Roadmap, developed countries must provide support to developing countries and define how parties will provide the more than $1.3 trillion in climate finance needed by 2035 and respond to the negative effects of foreign debt obligations. After years of failure, parties must recommit to just models of financing which ensure public grants, not loans, are available, predictable, needs-based, rights-and-gender responsive. They must be accessible so countries can pay for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage.

Closing: Faith communities – our contribution and responsibilities

Global and local action moving forward together in solidarity to address the climate emergency is critical now more than ever. Faith groups reach across the world and are among the biggest networks in local communities, with places of worship such as churches, temples, mosques, synagogues and holy places, serving as bridges to connect NDC policy aims with local populations.

Faith communities have a moral responsibility to protect our planet and should:

• Drive NDC implementation by promoting climate education and supporting initiatives and climate finance commitments that align with national goals.
• Leverage the power of spiritual ethics and storytelling to drive change and encourage accountability.
• Offer our spiritual practices of prayer and meditation.
• Anchor protest and resistance to the dismantling of climate commitments.
• Speak from a moral and ethical perspective on economic and political issues.
• Address how climate justice affects all social challenges: injustice, equity, hunger, poverty, and stewardship.

In summary, we would like to explore the offering of Faith Determined Contributions as a complement to achieve NDCs. As faith groups, we recognise that we must also build up our own capacities, invest in education and awareness-building, and help our communities connect their moral and spiritual beliefs with the need for ambitious climate action, ethical responsibility, and equitable resource use. In light of the Global Ethical Stocktake, faith communities could open a new horizon for ethical action, prioritising global community and long-term vision while uniting people with a shared ethical foundation.

As communities of faith, we acknowledge we live on one Earth, and that our planet consists of an interconnected whole of myriad forms of life, including - but not limited to - the human. In terms of our human presence, each country and individual is a valued member of our collective planetary whole, responsible for their part in addressing the climate emergency.