Father Dario Bossi, mccj: “The COP30 demands a profound conversion”

The Catholic Church in Brazil at COP 30.
An active and prophetic presence

The Church have prepared for COP 30 by engaging Christian communities and reaffirming its alliance with the causes of indigenous peoples, people of African descent, family farming, and popular urban movements.

One of Pope Francis's greatest legacies is his vision of integral ecology. Rooted in faith and supported by science, this clear vision offers a way forward in the face of the grave and urgent context of environmental and climate collapse. Integral ecology integrates spirituality, ethics, and socio-transformative action. Its purpose is to proclaim the Gospel in a way that challenges a deadly economy, sheds light on politics, and effectively promotes the common good.
These are the convictions that have underpinned the Church's active participation in recent years in the process of the United Nations Conferences of the Parties on climate change, the so-called COP. The encyclical Laudato Si' was published a few months before COP21 in Paris and had a profound influence on that multilateral meeting. More recently, concerned about the lack of resolve among nations after Paris, Pope Francis launched the exhortation Laudato Si' on the eve of COP28 in Azerbaijan.
The Church's presence in these events occurs on various levels. Three main dimensions can be distinguished: the preparatory phase, participation with peoples and grassroots movements during the COP, and presence in the Blue Zone, the institutional space where states negotiate global agreements and seek collective commitment. At COP30, scheduled for Belém, the Church will also be present at these three levels, which we present below.
The Church's main effort has focused on the preparatory phase, investing primarily in popular education and community mobilization. Indeed, there is a great distance between global climate negotiation processes and the daily lives of communities living in the countryside, forests, and cities. We are convinced, however, that climate change is primarily effected from the bottom up, when communities are guaranteed the right to land, to their life projects, and to sustainable local economies deeply integrated into the ecosystem.
For this reason, the Church in Brazil has promoted various training activities, engaging communities and reaffirming its alliance with the causes of indigenous peoples, people of African descent, family farming, and urban grassroots movements. The 2025 Fraternity Campaign, which inspires reflection, celebrations, and pastoral commitments all over the country throughout the year, had integral ecology as its central theme.
Additionally, the "Church towards COP30" platform organized five macro-regional events, called "pre-COP," aimed at training multipliers. These, in turn, promoted smaller, more widespread initiatives in dioceses, parishes, schools, and universities. The primary focus of these meetings was to connect the ongoing struggles and proposals in the various territories with the requests presented to the Brazilian government, in dialogue with the National Climate Plan and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that each country must submit to the COP.
To support this process, various educational and pastoral materials were produced, such as the COP30 Multipliers' Guide, training manuals for schools, and resources for conversation circles and popular study on the main topics addressed during the conference.
Another significant aspect of the Church's participation was political advocacy. In Brazil, the Church made a decisive contribution to the drafting of a document that gathered contributions from other local Churches in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, which subsequently resulted in "An Appeal for Climate Justice and Our Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation, and Resistance to False Solutions."

This document was presented to Pope Leo XIV by the three cardinal presidents of the episcopal conferences of these continents and has become an important tool for political advocacy. It was presented at the Bonn Conference in preparation for COP30 and served as the basis for an open letter sent to the United Nations. The text called on all states to assume their responsibility to present coherent NDCs, compatible with the gravity of the climate crisis, and commensurate with the challenges it poses.
This entire preparatory process will naturally lead to the Church's active presence at COP30. From the beginning, the Church has not considered itself an isolated or independent entity, which is why it has collaborated with grassroots movements, non-governmental organizations, and entities representing indigenous peoples and traditional communities throughout 2025, thus contributing to the People's Summit. Comprising over a thousand national and international organizations, the Summit represents the broadest body of civil society in relation to the Conference. It has worked intensively in the months leading up to the event and will organize activities, debates, and a major global march during its duration.
In a complementary manner, the Catholic Church is also participating in Interreligious Tapiri, a process that brings together different faith traditions in defence of the climate and our common home. This initiative includes activities with the Churches and Mines network, which demonstrates the resilience of communities affected by predatory projects.
The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, for its part, will organize a symposium bringing together representatives of the religious, scientific, and indigenous worlds for a high-level discussion. The meeting will be followed by a procession and an international Eucharistic celebration in which social and environmental commitment will be placed under the blessing of God and Our Lady of Nazareth, patroness of the Amazon.
Finally, the Church will also be present in the Blue Zone with thematic debates and the active participation of the cardinal presidents of the continental episcopal conferences of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the so-called “Churches of the Global South.”
The choice to hold COP30 in the Amazon and the Church's active participation throughout the process confirm that the defence of our common home has become a permanent and irreversible commitment for faith communities. Religion, in its diverse expressions, represents a fundamental dimension for inspiring change, uniting peoples, and strengthening shared responsibility in the face of the climate crisis. COP30 itself recognized this role when it established the Global Ethical Balance, which brings together religions, faith traditions, and cultural expressions around a common call for life and climate justice.
This unprecedented convergence of science, politics, spirituality, and culture is a source of hope. It demonstrates that humanity is not alone, but can count on the moral, spiritual, and communal strength of religious traditions, which, together with peoples and social movements, can lay the foundations for ecological conversion, global solidarity, and a renewed covenant between God, humanity, and creation.

Father Dario Bossi, mccj