WCC calls for greater urgency as COP29 climate talks enter final week

As many as ten thousand newborn babies have died prematurely over the past two decades due to human-caused global warming, according to a new analysis published Monday.

to workThe website Carbon Brief reports that one in three newborns who die from abnormal heat could survive if climate change did not raise temperatures above normal levels. The research examined low- and middle-income countries between 2001 and 2019, and it is stated that the findings correspond to the loss of 10,000 babies annually.

The current level of global warming is around 1.2°C; The United Nations says the world is now on track to reach 2.8°C.

Romario Dohmann of the River Plate Evangelical Church in Argentina is present at the COP29 climate talks, which started last Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“The Bible teaches us that God placed humans on the earth to care for it, and emphasizes that our collective role is as its stewards, not its exploiters,” he said. “This stewardship implies the duty to protect and preserve creation. The climate emergency we face today is a significant sign that we are not being good stewards of God’s creation. “We are most urgently called to change our ways and work for climate justice.”

The two-week summit in Baku has reached its final stage. Government ministers from around the world are expected to arrive this week; First on the agenda is the task of reaching agreement on a new climate finance target.

Participating countries agree that rich nations in the global North with a history of large carbon emissions have a moral and legal responsibility to provide funding to the global South, which is bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. The money will be used to slow and ultimately reverse a changing climate, deal with loss and damage caused by extreme weather, and finance the transition to clean energy in poor countries.

Henrik Grape, coordinator of the World Council of Churches’ climate change working group, said there needed to be more urgency in the negotiating halls in Baku: “Today we face a climate emergency and COP29 is still acting as if we have it all together. time on earth for the transition. But we need a transformation if we want to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change. “And this transformation must start among the world’s richest ten percent, because they are responsible for 50 percent of emissions.”

Climate talks are expected to gain momentum in the coming days with the arrival of government ministers who will make the final decisions. Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, arrived in Baku on Sunday. The United Kingdom was praised by people in climate-vulnerable countries for their new commitment at COP29 last week to cut emissions by 81 percent from 1990 levels by 2035 (News, November 15).

Joe Ware is Senior Climate Journalist at Christian Aid.