Ecojesuit, warming up for COP26

Negotiations around the Paris Agreement in 2015 have lagged as government heads are not willing to commit to a collective impact, exasperating limited actions. The global agenda that COP 26 offers still requires major mobilization and solidarity, faith-based collaboration, engaged communities and citizens learning how to commit from local contexts, among many actions.

Climate change is the continuing crisis the world is experiencing since the early 19th century, but any global discussion at this time has to start with COVID-19. These are the two existential crises humanity faces today and the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow in November cannot be put to the side as countries come to grips to manage the pandemic.

This is also the time to talk more about the climate than the virus and take action. Beyond vaccine availability and access, many still do not have water to wash their hands, food to nourish a family, shelter or the transport to practice social distancing. The world cannot continue to sleepwalk through the broader needs of the world, as the world we will wake up to is not going to be a better place and healed of its ills unless action is comprehensive.

It is not simply about doing more. It is about making fundamental shifts in attitudes and values that lead to action. It is about conversion and a covenant of care with humanity and all of creation to care, and to care deeply even when it hurts. Wealth accumulation and the Earth’s degradation need to shift gear with commitment and results shared on the table.

Ecojesuit suggestions in engaging with the COP26 process

Ecojesuit is a network that does not operate as a social movement. Thus, Ecojesuit is very dependent on people who want to network and why they want to network and share what they are advocating.

On the one hand, Ecojesuit’s effort is to share local stories and experiences coming through the Conferences, institutional programs of action, educational events, and specific events organized by Ecojesuit teams at Conference- and Province-levels. On the other hand, global networking receives most attention from the Conferences when Ecojesuit engages in climate change (COP meetings) and climate action/strikes. At the global level, Ecojesuit seeks to sustain linkages with other Jesuit networks and collaborate more broadly with civil society and UN bodies.

What can be done to be part of the necessary change?

1. Genuinely commit to change and a covenant relationship

This call is not just about an event in November, but about a deeper socio-ecological, political, and corporate commitment to change that must happen now.

However, commitment to change is not enough to make a difference as commitment is easily whittled away by short-lived actions and the feeling of insignificance amidst a global crisis. The commitment needs to be deepened and transformed into a covenant relationship where there is no giving up, no backing out. Entering into a covenant binds the commitment to a deeper level and a promise to stay in there whatever happens.

2. Accompany the voices in the margins

See-Judge-Act is the way of proceeding but has a tendency to remain an intellectual discourse and resolution seems dependent upon the same intellectual discourse for action.

If conversion is to be experienced, we need to be challenged today in our work, our daily living, in what we eat, and in what we say, so that we can integrate our faith, our community accompaniment, and our knowledge of systems (scientific, technological, psychological).

If there is no local community that we can learn with and from, then we need to find one. This is a call for accompaniment of living, struggling communities in the margins affected by the pandemic and the economy. How can their voices be supported so that they are heard?

3. Practice servant leadership

Leadership and collaboration are key words apart from care and covenant, solidarity and voice. We are all capable of raising the concerns with our neighbors and community. By bringing us all forward, by sharing consolation and desolation through little and great acts, we can make a difference because we are working together, we are working for others.

With all our education, we should understand that our powers of inquiry can animate and change many others and that the challenge is to live with the questions. The challenge is to take up humbly the role of shepherding, asking the questions of today in ways that encourage others to seek collaborative action.

4. Join the COP26 Regional Climate Weeks

Regional climate weeks in London, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Mediterranean are all formal platforms where we can contribute. We must also support our home countries towards more ambitious climate actions in the NDCs, and to help advocate for greater climate finance through our networks. Sign up, listen, stay with the process, and distill the lessons and actions for distribution.

5. Collaborate with and join advocacy groups for climate action

While seeking to engage in the COP processes, it must also be recognized that the regional and global COP processes do not enable the full participation of those at the margins. It is difficult to gain access and during COP25, civil society groups were literally kicked out of proceedings after they protested the slow pace of negotiations.

Dialogues and strong collaboration need to be formed around all the meetings as these grow month by month in 2021 so that voices outside can influence and impact negotiations.

Engagement demands a process of drawing from personal experience in community accompaniment, in science, and in faith. We must go out and seek genuine dialogue where we actually listen and share in the lives and reality of the most vulnerable. Indigenous Peoples, the youth, women, farmers, fisherfolk – all have voices that need to be heard and platforms to participate. We need to link with other organizations to bring about this needed awareness and action.

Ecojesuit looks forward to the collaborations that can be sustained from this conversation.