CIDSE issued a landmark joint statement calling on governments worldwide to move beyond pledges and deliver real action on climate change — ahead of the Santa Marta Conference taking place in Colombia from 24–29 April 2026.
As the world approaches the Santa Marta Conference, +30 Catholic organisations and Faith leaders endorsed a CIDSE statement calling on governments worldwide to move beyond pledges and deliver real action on climate change.
As the 1st Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels (28–29 April 2026) approaches, Catholic organisations and faith leaders from around the world are uniting behind a powerful joint statement: the climate crisis is not only an environmental emergency, it is a moral one.
Organised by CIDSE, the statement calls on governments to phase out fossil fuels, protect the most vulnerable, and deliver the climate finance the Global South urgently needs. Rooted in Catholic social teaching and the vision of integral ecology, it is a clear message from the faith community: the time for pledges is over. The time for action is now.
From Words to Action
At the heart of the statement is a demand that governments translate national commitments into concrete policies. The first Global Stocktake has confirmed a dangerous gap between what nations have promised in their Nationally Determined Contributions and what is actually being delivered. With global temperatures already exceeding 1.5°C, Catholic actors are calling this a moral emergency that demands an urgent, just, and people-centred response.
The statement welcomes the three COP30 presidential roadmaps — on transitioning away from fossil fuels, halting deforestation, and scaling up climate finance — and calls for these to be implemented in a way that centres equity, human rights, and the needs of the most vulnerable.
What does it really mean to have a just transition for all?
The Catholic community’s voice is clear: the energy transition must not reproduce the injustices of the fossil fuel era. It must guarantee energy access for those who lack it, protect Indigenous peoples and local communities, and ensure that wealthier nations bear their fair share of responsibility, including by providing genuine climate finance that does not deepen the debt burden of the Global South.
Read the full statement in English and in Spanish.
Contact: Pedro Guzmán, CIDSE Energy & Extractivism Officer (maternity cover for Lydia Machaka), (guzman(at)cidse.org).
Photo: Protesters during the “Launch of Don’t Gas the South and Don’t Gas Latin America” © UN Climate Change – Zô Guimarães.