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As COP 30 convened in Belem, Brazil, representatives from many faiths gathered at a local Lutheran Church fellowship hall and on-line to share our hopes, fears and vision for the outcomes of the coming days.

For the last few COP’s the Interfaith Liaison Committee of the U.N. along with the World Lutheran Federation the Anglican Communion and the World Council of Churches have sponsored an event called the Talanoa Dialogue. The name Talanoa comes from the islands of the South Pacific where the process of communal discernment incorporates input from the entire community. 

After some initial discussion and explanation of the process, the group was divided into nine sub-groups: six in-person and three on-line, and asked to offer our thoughts on three questions:

Question 1: Where are we Ethically speaking, in relation to Climate Change today?

• A tipping point in the climate crisis and a backslide in the political climate conversation.
• The world is committing to using more fossil fuels.  Greater Militarisation.
• A lot of youth are increasingly hopeless.
• Drought, floods biting hard at populations.  Increasing poverty, poorer agricultural yields.  But the rich will not invest if it doesn’t benefit them personally.
• Pacific nations literally screaming.  New Zealand is supporting but faces an energy crisis - running out of electricity because of indecision about renewables.
• Some folks really get it, others are oblivious or paying attention to other challenges in the world. How do we invite them in?
• How can religious traditions help us do that? How do they hinder it? Some of our faith traditions continue to teach about dominion and exploitation of the earth as “resources”.
• Some are fearful: What will happen to our children and our grandchildren?
• In the developed world we are at war with the earth which we attempt to conquer and tame and bend to our will.
• Non-Western Indigenous nations are not listened to, because most of their connection with mother nature is through spirituality and everyday living, which is hard to prove and provide facts.
• Industry is intertwined with (inter)national politics. Delegations at COPs can’t do as much as they perhaps would like, because there are legal frameworks so that big companies can sue governments over loss of profit etc.
• Facing contradictions ideals vs. realities. People are struggling.
• 98% of energy investment is in renewables - we tend to miss out on the positives.  Macro politics failing us but small scale projects are beginning to grow.

Question 2: Where do we want to get to? What is our goal?

• Where everyone’s voice is heard and valued, especially the voices of our Indigenous sisters and brothers.
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  We would like everyone to have enough, and for those of us who have been raised to overconsume to have a change of heart and consume less, much less. 

• Transition where social justice is at the heart. True solutions from Indigenous communities not just government.
• All have enough to eat, fresh water, clothing, housing in a way that looks after the natural environment in a way that earth can bear, a world where we can see love in action, where everybody is carried along to be liberated from this catastrophe.
• Respect and understanding of different cultures. More solidarity and awareness that we are part of nature and we share one planet with equality on that planet.
• Establishment of agreements such as the prohibition against eco-cide.
• Center our work around relationships: collaboration between the Global North and the Global South but also subnationally building relationships with Indigenous groups and grassroots organizations, and across generations, acknowledging and supporting youth leadership.
• We need a just transformation based around climate-conscious initiatives wherein vulnerable groups have the agency. Must be a transformation that connects our faith and moral basis with concrete processes and actionable goals rather than wishful thinking.
• We must focus on understanding peoples’ needs and working to meet those rather than on what is and is not feasible.
• Those being most affected need to be included and given agency in the decision-making processes - such as the Funding of Loss & Damage fund.

3. How do we get there?

• In the face of increasing disaster and despair it is important to pray as we act. It is in prayerful action that hope is birthed.
• Listening to and learning from the planet and its creatures helping our neighbors gives us hope.
• Working to assure that those not included in the conversation and decision spaces are brought into the dialog.
• Sharing money and clean tech from rich countries to poor ones.
• Debt cancellation for developing world/global south. 
  True awareness that we all have an equal right to inhabit this planet.
• Debates / dialogues are necessary to change the system.
• Deal with contradictions during this transition time.
• Instead of “trickle-down” from above, how do we support each other through grassroots community?
• Buy Local  - Support the localization movement – the group Local Futures:  https://www.localfutures.org/ Also the Post-Carbon Institute:  https://www.postcarbon.org/
• No heroes will come and rescue us – we need to lead ourselves into the future while maintaining hope.
• We have history in our favor. We’ve seen bad times before, and humanity has managed to overcome. We need to convey this to our children and grandchildren.
• Look to the people who are helping — and become their allies.

The gathering closed with an interfaith spiritual moment and a shared meal for in-person attendees, demonstrating how faith traditions build community around climate advocacy.

Over the next two weeks at COP30, faith communities will continue their ethical dialogue and advocacy through several events: an Interfaith Vigil on 13 November at the Anglican Cathedral, an Ecumenical Service on 16 November, and coordinated work on key negotiation points including climate finance, adaptation, and Indigenous rights. A more formal Talanoa statement will be forthcoming from the event leadership and presented to the COP Presidency later in the week.

The Rev. Fred Milligan, (H.R.), is a member of the Presbyterians for Earth Care Advocacy Committee and a PC(USA) virtual delegate to COP30.