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COP 28, the 28th Conference of the Parties, will take place from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirate. The conference will begin by delivering the first-ever Global Stocktake, a comprehensive evaluation or report card of how the global community has done with regard to the climate goals articulated at the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In a letter to the parties in July 2023, the incoming president of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, announced that the conference would focus on four key areas:
Follow the Conference on the COP28 website
Representatives the the world’s religions have signed an appeal calling for political leaders at next month’s COP28 climate summit to take meaningful action to respond to the urgent crisis of climate change.
The Global Faith Leaders' Summit brought together 28 faith leaders to sign the 'Confluence of Conscience: Uniting for Planetary Resurgence' known as 'The Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28', committing to addressing climate change and raising climate ambitions ahead of COP28, which will be held in Dubai at the end of November.
The Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement “demands transformative action to keep 1.5°C within reach and serve affected and vulnerable communities.” The signatories acknowledged that as “representatives of diverse faith and indigenous traditions” they were meeting to express “shared concern for the escalating climate impacts that imperil our cherished planet, as well as our common commitment to jointly address the global crisis.”... Read more here Download the Statement
Pope Francis has confirmed that he will attend the COP28 climate conference to be held in Dubai, the first time a pontiff will be at the U.N. environmental meeting since they began in 1995. COP28 runs from 30 November until 12 December. Pope Francis expects to be at the conference from 1-3 December.
Having made the environment one of the main themes of his papacy since being elected pope, and with the recent release of his text Laudate Deum (Praise God) on the devastation wrought by human-induced climate change it is expected that Pope Francis will continue his appeal for environmental protection.
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As we each prepare to follow COP28, this document, Laudate Deum: Advocacy towards COP28 will prove to be a helpful resource. The authors --Laudato Si' Movement, Laudato Si' Action platform and Caritas Internationalis--ask of us the following: 1. For the sake of our common home, please bring the above concrete demands to the urgent attention of your national government and international bodies. 2. In parallel, as people of faith grounded in the conviction that Creation is a sacred gift from God, we are called to also transform the values of our communities and societies. Ultimately, “There are no lasting changes without cultural changes” (LD 70). Pope Francis has issued a new motu proprio, that is, a document issued by the pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him. Called in Italian Ad theologiam promovendam and yet to be translated from Italian, it means to promote theology. 'What is needed is "a fundamentally contextual theology", writes the Pope, "capable of reading and interpreting the Gospel in the conditions in which men and women live daily, in different geographical, social, and cultural environments".  Opening up to the world and to humanity, "with its problems, its wounds, its challenges, its potential", theological reflection must make room for "an epistemological and methodological rethinking", and is therefore called to "a courageous cultural revolution"...' Read the complete article here Source: Vatican News. The "Theology from the Peripheries Project" conducted by the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development during 2021-2022 is an example of contextual theology. One fundamental aspect of the project was the development of a methodology based on an openness to people’s experiences, specifically informed by their contexts. A report from the conference held in Rome in October 2022 sharing the findings of the project can be found on this website here Further information about the project and its publications can be found on the Dicastery's website here |