Praying for COP28 - Final Negotiations: Unity & Community

COP28 - 12 December 2023
Final Negotiations: Day 2 Unity & Community

This is the very final day of COP28. If you have been praying with us throughout the conference then thank you and well done.

As with yesterday, there is no specific agenda of topics today. The delegates are negotiating the terms of various partnerships, agreements, commitments which will bear fruit in the coming years. It is a particularly important time to pray.

Today we will be praying for unity amongst the delegates, and a sense of community. “This year, more than ever, unity is a prerequisite for success”, so said COP28’s president, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber

We will also take some time to consider what practical steps we might be able to commit to - so that we ourselves can contribute to the reduction of climate change.

The parable of the Good Samaritan challenges us to care for those we don’t know - our global neighbour and our future neighbours (still to be conceived, not yet born). The Good Samaritan went out of his way and was willing to be inconvenienced for someone who others ignored. He had no way of knowing what the outcome of his actions would be. Often, we feel that whatever we do is pointless, the issues are too big yet to do nothing is to turn our backs on our God given duty. Much of the Old Testament describes God’s relationship with the community (not just individuals) of Israel. Our Western focus is frequently on the individual - the importance of personal salvation, personal morality, personal conscience, and personal choice in matters of faith and practice with a consequent loss of issues of interdependence, accountability and sacrificial service to others.

A short prayer

God of love, give us a deep love for you, so that we can see the world as you see it, feel the compassion you feel, and be a people whose lives mediate your love to others. So, open our eyes that we might see what the Good Samaritan saw. Grant us the insight to see the need in others, the wisdom to know what to do, and the will to do it. Amen

From the Baptist Union of Great Britain

A longer prayer

Creator God, who imbued the world with your generosity and abundance, we pray that you would open our eyes to see you at work, open our hearts to receive your gifts, including the gift of one another, and open our hands, that we may play our part in tending your creation, in working for justice and redressing the wrongs that maim and hurt the world and its people.  

Jesus Christ, who came to proclaim good news to the poor, the prisoners, and the sick, we pray that you would help us hear and respond to your call; that you would show us the riches we already have, and reveal our poverty of imagination and generosity; we pray that you would free us from the need to compete, to hoard resources and to diminish the other, and you would heal us from the wounds of the past, wounds we have inflicted and wounds that have been inflicted on us that we may be released into fullness of life.  

Spirit of all truth, who brooded over the waters of creation, we pray that you would reveal to us the truth of our lives, their beauty and their holiness, their sin, brokenness and shadows; we pray that you would sanctify us in our thoughts and in our deeds, that we may love you and our neighbour more deeply, and work with you for the renewal of creation.

From Embracing Justice by Isabelle Hamley

From the Bible

Luke 10 v25-37 (a modern retelling)

An elderly man was making his way through the park. Some youths set upon him. They were carrying knives. They mugged him, injured him badly and left him lying in a pool of blood.

A while later a person on their way home from work came along. He noticed the man on the ground and thought: I'd better pretend not to have seen him. If I stop and call the police and ambulance I will have to wait ages and they will ask me a lot of questions. They will want information. I'll be a witness and I'll probably have to go to Court eventually to say what I saw. I really can't be bothered with all this. I'd better get home. He was tired of seeing all these homeless people in the park who don’t pay taxes and scrounge off the state. It made him mad.

A few moments later a minister walked by. He did not usually walk this way, but he was on his way to a tricky board meeting for all the churches in his area. He wished he had been able to find parking closer, but he had been forced to take a short cut through the park because he was already running late. He saw the man and felt nervous. Who knows what that man had been drinking in order to be that drunk. Often these people were dangerous, and unpredictable. Just to keep safe he kept walking. "I'm sure the police will deal with him," he thought. "I need to get going." A faint wave of guilt washed over him, hoping this man would be okay, but he quickly told himself that he wasn't responsible for saving the world.

A few minutes later a young person who had just finished his shift walked by and noticed the old man. Feeling sorry for him, he went over and asked "Are you okay? He used his mobile to call an ambulance and waited with the elderly man until they arrived. "Take my mobile," he told the old man, "and use it to call your family so they know where you are and that you are ok. And here's some cash, it’s all I’ve got, to tide you over until you get things sorted out – you might need a taxi to get home from hospital.”

Adapted from Catholic365 the Good Samaritan

Issues

“Inclusion will be the foundation of our Presidency, the tool that will enable us to collectively achieve ambitious outcomes at COP28. We will continue to work in collaboration with women, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, youth, people of determination, subnational actors, and faith-based organizations to ensure their contributions throughout our programs and outcomes” (Message from President Designate, P.6).

Solidarity:

Climate change is already hitting people in poverty the hardest. The poorest 3.5 billion people are responsible for just ten per cent of emissions. The world’s richest 10% are responsible for 50% of all CO2 emissions.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that 3.6 billion people already live in areas highly susceptible to climate change. Despite contributing minimally to global emissions, low-income countries and small island developing states endure the harshest health impacts. In vulnerable regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade was 15 times higher than in less vulnerable ones.
Extreme weather events are forcing people to leave their homes, lose their source of income, and go hungry. This is an injustice. Although the climate crisis is affecting us all, it’s hitting some communities harder than others. And it’s the people who’ve done the least to cause it who are suffering the most.
God calls us to love our neighbours and speak up for them.

Hope

Religion can have a significant and positive influence on people’s behaviour when it comes to the environment - Pope Francis’s encyclical Care for our Common Home and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. Both highlight the relevance of religious ideas to environmental crises and guide people to live sustainably (The Conversation January 2023)
In 2020 the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book was Saying Yes to Life. The book presented theological perspectives on the importance of taking care of the natural world, focusing on environmental challenges such as water scarcity, air pollution, land degradation, biodiversity loss and energy use.
Rooftop solar is powering the clean energy transition: Global rooftop solar capacity grew by 49% in 2022
Swiss citizens say yes to climate action: The Swiss electorate has voted in favour of a new climate law, which will see the country cut net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050
Indonesia and Malaysia are rooting for their tropical forests: The tropics lost 10% more primary rainforest in 2022 than in 2021. While there is cause for concern that deforestation is accelerating in certain regions, there is still reason for hope. The world’s two biggest palm oil-growing nations, Indonesia and Malaysia, have managed to keep rates of primary forest loss to near record-low levels, according to the World Resources Institute

To do!

And here are some suggestions for how we at home, or at church, could do our bit to reduce climate change

A'Rocha's eco-church
Tearfund suggests these daily choices to help tackle climate change
If you want to explore more look - Tearfund have produced an Climate Emergency Toolkit
Book: Creation Care by Prof Douglas Moo which is A Biblical Theology of the Natural World
Book: Creation Care by RJ Berry and Laura Yoder which is an anthology of John Stott's writings on creation care which demonstrates his passion for the environment and its place in Christian discipleship

COP28 - 12 December 2023Final Negotiations: Day 2 Unity & Community