The socio-environmental crisis is hitting Latin America and the Caribbean with particular severity – whilst being one of the world’s most vulnerable regions and amongst the least of the polluters.
Prolonged droughts, increasingly intense hurricanes and rising sea levels threaten food security, livelihoods, biodiversity and human dignity. Its impacts deepen historical inequalities, cause material, cultural and spiritual losses, and force thousands of people to migrate or be displaced.
This situation is further aggravated by an extractivist economic model that strips communities of their territories, criminalises those who defend them, and keeps many countries trapped in unjust debt that limits their capacity to respond fairly and effectively to the emergency.
Our participation in the COPs and related spaces has been recent but active and increasing. As the Latin American and Caribbean Secretariat, we have been present at COP16 on Biodiversity in Cali (Colombia), COP29 in Baku, and the intersessional meetings in Bonn in June 2025.
Despite the insufficient results delivered after more than three decades, we believe this path enables us to strengthen capacities and foster 'bottom-up' processes of influence. We value these spaces as key opportunities for joint action in favour of socio-environmental justice, with a long-term perspective.
In this synodal journey which combines training, advocacy and coordination, we have promoted ecclesial pre-COPs, produced advocacy materials, and we are helping to highlight community best practices.
We have also taken part in strategic gatherings, such as the ecumenical collaboration meeting of Christian leaders in Brasília (March 2025) and Climate Week (May 2025), alongside ecclesial, Christian and civil society actors.
