“We are not asking for favors. We are demanding our rights.”
A youth on a panel from the Young Leaders in Energy and Sustainability shared this to those participating in person and online, such as myself. This sentiment rang true across the second week of COP 30 sessions I watched. Choices were made during the conference not only on agenda items but also on the kinds of economies that are being created and supported throughout the world.
This year’s conference had several nicknames: the COP of truth, the COP of implementation, and the Indigenous COP, along with a focus on just transition. Despite having one of the largest presences of Indigenous people in attendance, Indigenous people were not given the power to negotiate on behalf of themselves.
Learning about the lack of sufficient action for climate change at COP 30 felt like reading Hosea 4 verse 3: “Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing.” Our ecosystem cannot thrive under the environmental conditions of climate change, and there will continue to be a human cost as well.
Oftentimes, even the green intentions of the Global North result in extraction of people and planet. The Global North is dependent on the Global South for labor and materials to make green technologies. For instance, children as young as 5 years old are currently working in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This mining is going on specifically for electric batteries for electric cars driven in the Global North. Children in the Congo and worldwide deserve a future better than that, and they deserve access to education that is not interrupted by climate change.
The economy of creation care often sits in contrast to the economy of extraction. This is most evident in the Global North’s treatment of Indigenous communities. The standard of free and informed consent for mining is often being violated in favor of short-term profit. Stewardship of the earth is at odds with short-term profit of the fossil fuel industries and expansion of drilling for oil, especially as I learned about fossil fuel drilling expansion in the very region of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, where the conference took place.
God has put us in the midst of these two economies, and calls us to both advocate for and act in solidarity with God’s children, especially those who are most impacted by oppression and the material effects of climate change. Amidst these troubles, we are called as children of God to not only to hope, but also to advocate for a better world, and to act as though one is possible.