FaithS Together for Climate Action

An Interfaith Statement on the eve of COP30 in Brasil

As COP30 takes place in Belem, Brazil in the next couple of weeks, we invite the Irish people to pray in solidarity with those attending and participating in COP30. The COP is an opportunity for high-level engagement in addressing the climate challenges that face humanity and all life-forms on the planet. We call for commitments that protect the planet, for strategies that demonstrate a fair, fully funded phase-out of fossil fuels and reflect a solidarity with communities devastated by climate change and those threatened by fossil fuel exploration and expansion.

We highlight the powerful call from Catholic Bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean ahead of COP30, and join them in asking for an end to fossil dependence and a rejection of false solutions. It is vital that Ireland and the EU demonstrate moral leadership by recognising the imperative to limit global heating to 1.5°C, accelerating the elimination of coal, oil and gas and phasing out all fossil fuel subsidies equitably, while considering energy poverty and a just transition, and we call on the Irish government to support the campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In responding to the “cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” called for in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, faith communities have become “action heroes” as Pope Leo XIV referred to delegates at the Raising Hope conference 1-3 October 2025. He encouraged representatives from Laudato Si Movement and a wide variety of organisations gathered to remember that “we are one family, with one Father, who makes the sun to rise and sends rain on everyone (cf. Mt 5:45). We inhabit the same planet, and we must care for it together.” The invitation of Laudato Si’ to return to the heart, to see how our spirituality speaks with hope and care for our brothers and sisters, how faith communities can embody this in so many ways both on a local and global level, inspires a sense of hope and joy, palpable for many who attended Raising Hope.

The Laudato Si Working Group, Focolare and the Dublin City Interfaith Forum invite action in the form of “People’s Determined Contributions” (PDCs) to send a message to COP30 about what people are doing to collaborate and raise climate action within our communities and to inspire governments and leaders to increase ambition with their National Determined Contributions. Do consider adding your pledge to the People’s Determined Contributions using the link above.

Trócaire, the Laudato Si’ Movement, Focolare and the Dublin City Interfaith Forum will attend the National Climate Demonstration on November 15th in Dublin, and all are welcome to join the inter-faith prayer service at 12.45pm in the Garden of Remembrance before joining the climate march at 1pm in solidarity with communities at the frontlines of climate change.

We continue to foster the interfaith collaboration on environmental issues, driven by Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. This framework integrates ethical, spiritual values with policy and science to boost sustainable development. It inspired Muslim leaders to launch the Al-Mizan Covenant for the Earth and prompted all faiths to examine how their teachings address contemporary challenges, fossil fuels, biodiversity loss, climate justice, while influencing United Nations systems to embed values alongside laws.

HIS ALL HOLINESS THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH B A R T H O L O M E W, said:

“May we find the courage to speak truth to power and the wisdom to speak love to fear. May we discover that caring for creation is not a burden but a gift—the opportunity to participate in the ongoing creativity of the God who spoke worlds into being and still calls them “very good” (as in Genesis, chapter 1). And may we remember, even in dark moments, that every crisis is also an opportunity, every death the possibility of resurrection. The earth is groaning, but it is also hoping. The question is whether we will join its song of grief or its chorus of gratitude.” +B A R T H O L O M E W, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch.

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Dublin City Interfaith Forum The Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF) is a network of people from a wide variety of faith communities in the city. It seeks to raise awareness of the diversity of faith and culture through deep interfaith dialogue and co-operation. We envisage a society based on mutual respect, co-operation and understanding driven by progressive pluralism and unity, diverse and vibrant, throughout Ireland and the World. The participating faiths are Baha’i, Buddhism, Christian, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism and Sikhism.