Humanity is at the brink of a crisis that threatens its existence, and the demand for meaningful climate actions has never been more urgent as it is today. As people of faith, central to our Christian life and ministries is God’s promise of abundant life for all – including the most vulnerable people, communities, and countries that are reeling the worst impacts of the climate emergency. It is from this promise that we, in the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, find the moral imperative to call for climate justice and pursue peace.
As the world leaders, scientists, and concerned civil society gather at the largest UN summit on climate change, the 29th UN Conference of Parties (COP29), in Baku, Azerbaijan; Filipino communities has been battered repeatedly by powerful typhoons – having experienced five powerful typhoons in under a month. These extreme events damaged crops in time for harvest season, destroyed houses, and displaced thousands of families. As COP29 commence, Filipinos are facing these catastrophic impacts with humanitarian responders overwhelmed, local capacities exhausted, and resources depleted. Mainly farmers and fishers, the communities who are facing the worst impacts of climate emergency have contributed the least to the crisis.
The state of un-peace in our Creation is also present in the environmentally destructive programs and projects being pushed by the national government. Reclamation projects threaten our Philippine coastlines such as in Manila Bay and Bacolod City. Our mountains are being sold to foreign-owned extractive industries such as in large-scale mining and quarrying. We are witnessing, here and abroad, bombs being dropped in populated communities, traumatizing children or leaving them as orphans, burning homes and displacing families as powers that be continue their theater of war. Lamentably, most ongoing wars and militarism do not only worsen existing vulnerabilities but also hasten planetary breakdown by driving competition over fossil fuel, intensifying resource grabbing, and channeling resources away from climate solutions. We are also firm that these signs of the times are rooted from centuries of colonialism and exploitation, as well as new forms of colonization, driven by perennial desire for mega-profit at the expense of poor and marginalized nations, groups, and peoples.
Our Christian faith directs us to a path of peace – a path that requires justice. Our Christian role as stewards of God’s Creation also inspires us to hold ecological protection and climate actions to a high standard. We are thus dismayed by the insufficient urgency and ambition in addressing the climate crisis in the past years, despite the plethora of scientific evidence demanding the cruciality of climate actions.
As NCCP participates in COP29, we uphold our values of truth, justice, and solidarity, which strengthen our resolve for climate action and ecological justice. Alongside the ecumenical delegation of the ACT (Action by Churches Together) Alliance, we count our participation as an opportunity to amplify the communities’ demand for accountability and rights. This goes with a call to major polluters to fulfill their moral and historical obligations and debt to humanity through sufficient, concrete and people-centered climate finance. We also support the global call to phaseout fossil fuels, the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions, by endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. We also commit ourselves to being vigilant against false solutions that fail to address the root causes of the climate crisis, and against deceptive greenwashing tactics that let corporate greed trump over the integrity of Creation.
As Proverbs 31:8-9 reminds us, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Beyond COP29 in Baku, we shall remain steadfast in our role as faithful stewards through accompanying those most vulnerable and affected by wars and climate crisis as they stand up for their rights. We shall commit to living harmoniously with and among the Creation, safeguarding its integrity against all threats, and fulfilling our task to protect both people and the planet.
Signed:
16 November 2024
Ms. Jennifer Ferariza-Meneses
Vice-Chairperson
Pastor Jon Dave A. Angeles
Vice Chairperson
Rev. Leonardo R. Morada
Treasurer
Ms. Minnie Anne M. Calub
General Secretary
