Sister Dusty Farnan, OP who represents the Dominican Family at the United Nations in New York, recently attended the United Nations COP-27 Climate Change Conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. This global gathering of heads of State, representatives, NGO’s, CEOs, grass roots activists, come together to continue the on-going efforts to renew international collaboration on climate action. The conference was held in Sharm el-Sheikh which is on the Sinai Peninsula, the land held sacred by followers of Abrahamic religions as the place where God appeared to Moses and called him to a mission of liberation. On each day of this conference, we were invited to pray in solidarity with the whole Earth community and, in a special way, with the Catholic Sisters, Brothers, priests, and other faith leaders who were advocating for environmental justice.
Catholics worldwide have been fighting climate change through the Laudato Si' Movement, an international network of Catholic individuals and organizations responding to Pope Francis' call to care for our common home and achieve climate and ecological justice
We know the reality of climate change in our country and throughout the world: wildfires in western United Sates, hurricanes in Florida, floods in Pakistan, famine in Somalia and the list goes on. In 2015, we pledged to Lending our individual and collective voice to those efforts, consistent with our Catholic faith and the Dominican search for truth, that seek to mitigate the effects of Climate Change.
After days of intense negotiations that stretched into early Sunday morning, two days after the conference was scheduled to conclude, countries at COP27 reached agreement to establish a funding mechanism compensating vulnerable nations for ‘loss and damage’ from climate-induced disasters.
We must continue to pray, study and act to address climate change to respond to Pope Francis question, What world do we want to leave to our children and our young?