Blue Zone Side Event at COP30 on November 11
A well-attended Blue Zone side event titled “Responding to the Global South Catholic Bishops’ Conferences’ Call for Climate Justice” took place on November 11 at COP30 in Belém. The gathering brought together Church leaders, Indigenous representatives, youth advocates, and civil society organizations to reflect on the moral urgency of the climate crisis. It also marked a significant milestone for Proclade International, which hosted its first-ever side event at an international forum, serving as the lead organizer with co-sponsorship from VIVAT International, Maryknoll Sisters, Medical Mission Sisters, Caritas-Canada, and KAIROS-Canada.
The event was anchored in the episcopal document “A Message from the Catholic Episcopal Conferences and Councils of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean on the Occasion of COP30: A Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home—Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solutions” (June 2025). This message frames the climate crisis as a moral, spiritual, and civilizational emergency and calls for genuine ecological conversion and rejection of false solutions.
Moderator Dean Detloff opened the bilingual session by acknowledging the leadership of Cardinal Philip Neri, President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC); Cardinal Jaime Spengler, President of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council (CELAM); and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). Their collaboration has strengthened the unified moral voice of bishops across the Global South.
The first panel featured Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, Bishop of Kalookan in the Philippines, Vice-President of FABC, and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines; Bishop Léonard Ndjadi Ndjate, Auxiliary Bishop of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and Sister Rosita Sida-Smith, Executive Secretary of the Gran Chaco and Guarani Aquifer Ecclesial Network. Drawing from their regions’ experiences and from the bishops’ June 2025 message, they spoke about the devastating impacts of extractive industries, deforestation, and drought. They rejected false climate solutions such as carbon markets, offsets, and geoengineering, and called for a verifiable fossil-fuel phase-out supported by justice-centered climate finance. Their leadership has been essential in articulating the ethical imperatives of climate justice from regions bearing the heaviest ecological burdens. They also emphasized the protection of Indigenous territories and food sovereignty as central to climate justice.
The second panel brought together Sister Immaculate Tusingwire of the Medical Mission Sisters (Uganda), Sasquia Antúnez Pineda from Honduras, and Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (Philippines). They reflected on the spiritual and communal dimensions of ecological care and highlighted the experiences of youth and social movements. Their interventions emphasized the need for community governance and called on the Global North to honor its ecological debt through grants, not loans.
Expressions of solidarity were offered by Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, Archbishop of Belgrade (Serbia), and Bishop Jon Hansen, Bishop of Mackenzie–Fort Smith (Canada). Both affirmed the commitment of the Church in the Global North to walk alongside Global South communities in the struggle for climate justice.
Participants described the side event as a kairos moment—a decisive opportunity calling for ecological conversion and a renewed global commitment rooted in justice, truth, and solidarity with the most vulnerable. For Proclade International, the moment marked an important step in amplifying the voices of the Global South at COP30 and strengthening collaboration across continents in the care of our common home.
Source: Rohan Dominic, CMF, Claretian Representative at UN
