Sunday, November 16, 2025 was an “off” day for COP30 negotiators, but an active one for interfaith collaborators in Belém, Brazil. We convened at the Amazon Climate Hub for “Faiths for a Fossil Fuel Treaty.”
Abi Levitt presented a film about environmental responsibility from a Jewish perspective.
The EcoJudaism film included a rabbi and a young scholar. Together, they read aloud and interpreted the Torah. Specifically, they examined the Biblical duty to preserve and share the bounty of earth’s resources.
However, while the young scholar noted the Jewish tradition of returning, repenting and repairing, they both observed lessons in the Torah warning that it is not always possible to do so. Sometimes there is no going back to a “Garden of Eden.”
The duty is to act responsibly now, before it is too late!
Greenfaith organized the entire interfaith event to respond to that call to duty.
Greenfaith is part of a coalition advocating for the creation, endorsement and adoption of an Anti-Fossil Fuel Proliferation Treaty.
September 25, 2020, during Climate Week NYC. Since 2020, many faith traditions have called for such a treaty to avoid devastation, from which there may be no opportunity for humanity to regenerate.
November 16th, The Rev. Fletcher Harper, the Executive Director of Greenfaith, introduced inspiring speakers from many faith traditions to explain why such a treaty is essential.
The event drew a large, “standing room only” assemblage of environmental, religious and spiritual leaders to the Amazon Climate Hub.
The faith community is already joined by nation states, sub-national governments, organizations, institutions and businesses, and individuals including Nobel Laureates, in supporting such a treaty.
Another speaker was Naderev “Yeb” Saño, from the Philippines. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Roman Catholic Laudato Si’ Movement. He alluded to Pope Francis’ view of the fossil fuel industry’s organizational apparatus as “structural sin.”
He humorously identified himself as a recovering negotiator who once represented his country at the COPs. Yet, he seemed to agree with Kumi Naidoo that the treaty was more likely to succeed with the faith community’s leadership. And that the campaign should build strength outside the COP process, then push forward for ratification by the United Nations.
He also announced a significant action within the interfaith community seeking an end to fossil fuel proliferation. It is a detailed COP30 position statement from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean entitled: “A Call for Climate Justice and the Common Home.” The subtitle of the joint document is “Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solution.”
Within the 34-page document, Roman Catholic Archbishops of the Global South in Brazil, India and the Congo renounce the proliferation of fossil fuels and seek a treaty supporting its cessation.
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