COP30, the United Nations climate conference, will be held in Belem, Brazil in the region known as Amazonia. (Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert)
World Council of Churches | Nov. 6, 2025
As the world's largest climate gathering opens in the Amazon on 10 November, the World Council of Churches (WCC) says this location creates an unprecedented "kairos moment" - a decisive time demanding response. The conference must centre the voices of Indigenous peoples and frontline communities in ways previous conferences have failed to do.
"COP30 is a kairos moment that demands we choose transformation over destruction, solidarity over extraction, and life over profit," said Bishop Prof. Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, WCC central committee moderator. "This is not simply about transitioning to cleaner energy; it is about ecological metanoia - transforming our hearts, our economies, and our civilizations. We must centre the wisdom of Indigenous peoples who have been faithful stewards of God's creation for generations, and we must ensure that climate finance brings liberation, not new chains of debt."
Faith communities are pressing three key demands: ambitious national climate action plans with real accountability, climate finance as justice through grants instead of loans and debt cancellation, and a just transition toward genuine socio-ecological transformation that centres Indigenous wisdom and rejects false solutions. Protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples, children, and other vulnerable groups is integral to this transformation.
"Climate plans without finance are promises without power," said Athena Peralta, director of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development. "Wealthy countries must provide the 1.3 trillion US dollars needed by 2035 as grants, not loans. Climate-vulnerable nations are drowning in debt while sea levels literally rise around them. The ecumenical 'Turn Debt into Hope' campaign calls for Jubilee - debt cancellation rooted in biblical justice, not charity. Cancel the debts and let countries invest in protection rather than repayment."
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global emissions must drop 43 percent by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Current promises fall short. At COP29 (2024), countries agreed wealthy nations would provide 300 billion US dollars per year by 2035.
Rev. Henrik Grape, WCC senior advisor for Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice, challenged what he called false solutions. "A just transition cannot be built on new zones of sacrifice. Indigenous peoples are not merely participants - they are guardians of the ecosystems that sustain us all. Their traditional knowledge and territorial rights must be at the centre. True transformation is socio-ecological and civilizational. It defends the rights of peoples and of nature."
COP30 is the first major global climate event of the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025-2034), launched in Johannesburg in June 2025, which calls churches worldwide to intensify their witness through prayer, advocacy, and transformative action.Follow WCC’s COP30 coverage at www.oikoumene.org/cop30Join the dedicated COP30 WhatsApp channel here