Scheduled from 30 November to 12 December, this gathering of global political leaders assessing climate change will include a strong presence of religious figures.

Pope Francis, both a head of state and the leader of the Catholic Church worldwide, will inaugurate the event and deliver a speech during his stay in Dubai from 1-3 December, as reported by Vatican News.

The Faith Pavilion, co-hosted by the UN Environmental Program, the Muslim Council of Elders and various faith-based groups, will serve as a hub for religious communities to address climate change collectively.

Bishop Marc Andrus, leader of the Bay Area-based diocese, highlighted the imperative for unified voices to combat the urgent effects of climate change.

"The Pavilion is really a physical embodiment of our commitment to really be an active sector in climate change work" Bishop Andrus stated.

Rabbi Yonatan Neril, executive director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, expressed enthusiasm about Pope Francis' involvement in the inauguration.

Neril emphasised the significance of this interfaith movement in addressing the climate emergency.

High-level faith leaders

The Pavilion will host 65 sessions focusing on how major religious groups are contributing to climate change mitigation.

The religions represented in the Faith Pavilion are Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Baha'i, Buddhism, Indigenous religions and Zoroastrianism.

High-level faith leaders such as Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of the United Kingdom and Bishop Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, will be among the speakers advocating urgent collaborative action.

"Most of the world's population and many of the political negotiators at the COPs affiliate with a religion" stated Neril.

"Yet for the first 27 UN climate conferences, senior religious figures have seldom shown up. At COP28 in Dubai, we have worked to significantly increase the presence of high-level religious leaders and seek to do so at future COPs."

Sources

Earthbeat National Catholic Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, made the joint statement ahead of the Cop26 climate summit.

In their first-ever joint statement, the three clerics urged people to play their part in 'choosing life' for the planet. They called on leaders to make decisions that will allow a transition to 'just and sustainable economies'.

The statement said: 'We call on everyone, whatever their belief or worldview, to endeavour to listen to the cry of the earth and of people who are poor, examining their behaviour and pledging meaningful sacrifices for the sake of the earth which God has given us.

"Today, we are paying the price, tomorrow could be worse. This is a critical moment. Our children's future and the future of our common home depend on it."

'This is the first time that the three of us feel compelled to address together the urgency of environmental sustainability, its impact on persistent poverty, and the importance of global cooperation,' it added.

The three Christian leaders used their platform to speak out against inequality, saying: "We stand before a harsh justice: biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and climate change are the inevitable consequences of our actions, since we have greedily consumed more of the earth's resources than the planet can endure.

"But we also face a profound injustice: the people bearing the most catastrophic consequences of these abuses are the poorest on the planet and have been the least responsible for causing them."

COP26, which the pope hopes to attend, is taking place in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.

The talks aim to spur more ambitious commitments by countries to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. COP26 also seeks to keep the global average temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius during this century, in line with a 2015 Paris accord.

Sources

Daily Mail

The Telegraph