As world leaders prepare to gather this week for the 31st annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Turkey, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement calling on world leaders to actively work to protect life on our common home.
The annual conference takes place in November or December and this year takes place from Nov. 9–20.
The statement was issued by Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, along with President and CEO of Catholic Relief Services Sean Callahan.
“As leaders gather at COP31, we recognize the need for decisive action that will protect and promote human flourishing and our common home. The global Church continues to witness the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” they wrote. “We accompany those most impacted by a changing climate and the resulting extreme weather, rising seas, and biodiversity loss.”
They pointed out that young people in particular “are leading this response, demanding climate justice for their generation and generations to come,” adding that “their witness is our hope: proof that our faith in action answers the hardest realities.”
The Catholic leaders recalled Pope Leo XIV’s message shared during last year’s conference in which he said that God’s creation is “crying out in floods, droughts, storms, and relentless heat.”
“He also reminded us that it is not the Paris Agreement that is failing, but our collective response to it — and that to overlook communities most exposed to climate change is to deny our shared humanity,” the statement said.
“We urge world leaders and institutions to deliver additional climate finance that prioritizes grants over loans so that poor countries can invest in resilience and adaptation without the weight of more debt,” the statement said. “We implore negotiators to agree on how progress on adaptation will be measured within the Global Goal on Adaptation. We call on them to finalize a ‘just transition’ mechanism to accompany developing countries with expertise, cooperation, and funding as they move away from fossil fuels.”
“This transition should center on protecting the dignity of every worker, family, and community affected.”
The statement concluded: “Echoing the call of our Holy Father, we ask leaders to leave Antalya having matched the scale of their commitments to the scale of the need — and to remember, in every negotiating room, that behind every number is a family making difficult, daily decisions on survival amidst more extreme, erratic, and frequent climate shocks.”
The Irish Bishops’ Conference also issued a statement last week urging the Irish delegation attending the COP31 to recognize the “important role” Ireland plays in “safeguarding our common home.”
The Irish bishops urged the country’s delegation to advocate for four specific topics: climate finance and social justice, clean energy investment and sufficiency, fossil fuel phase-out, and fossil fuel profit tax.
The COP31 is expected to draw roughly 100,000 participants including heads of states, heads of governments, prime ministers, vice presidents, climate ministers, negotiators, scientists, corporate executives, and nongovernmental organizations like Greenpeace and WWF.
The conference is being led by COP31 president and Turkey’s Environment Minister Murat Kurum. Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen is presiding over negotiations, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened the summit.
This is the second consecutive year that the United States lacks an official government delegation at the summit due to the Trump administration’s withdrawal from climate pacts. However, some U.S. governors, lawmakers, and business leaders will be in attendance independently.
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