Creation’s hope: Christ

What happened at COP26?

At the beginning of November, delegates from every nation in the world arrived in Glasgow for COP26, the UN conference on climate change. COPs (in full, the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) happen annually but the big ones are every five years or so. COP26 was particularly critical, being the first major gathering since the Paris Agreement in 2015; the first test of whether countries would live up to their promises on climate change.

I wanted to see two key results from COP26: an outcome which will limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and one which is fair to the Global South. In a nutshell, we needed to see ambition and the money. Third on my list would be recognition of nature’s role in limiting warming, such as the way forests and peatland store carbon.

How did it go? In the words of Tearfund, there was progress, but it was still far from justice. On the positive side, there were some side deals on important topics like deforestation and methane emissions. The deal itself – the Glasgow Climate Pact – recognises the positive role of nature and the negative role of fossil fuels in ways they hadn’t been before. On the downside, when all the countries’ plans were added up it is clear that they are not ambitious enough. Nor has sufficient money been pledged to keep previous promises to help developing countries. At the last moment, India and China scuppered a plan to phase out fossil fuels. All this left many poorer nations, particularly vulnerable island states, despondent.

As reported in last month’s en, evangelical Christians prayed, marched and engaged with delegates. Many churches held Climate Sunday initiatives. I recommend you look at the websites of Christian organisations like Tearfund and A Rocha for their reaction to COP26.

Although the issue is urgent and the deal was disappointing, this is not the end of the road for international negotiations. It was agreed that nations should reconvene with more ambitious plans in Egypt in 2022, rather than in five years’ time, and that Finance Ministers will meet again to resolve the money issues. There’s also another big UN meeting in China in 2022 to agree new targets to fix the ecological crisis (confusingly known as COP15, but this one is the Convention on Biological Diversity).

It’s easy to be dismissive of international meetings like this. After all, the Bible tells us ‘Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save’ (Ps.146: 3). The psalm reminds us to put our hope in the Lord our God, the Maker of heaven and earth. Yet I believe that, in God’s common grace, it is possible for the nations of the world to work together on global problems. It’s been done successfully before when action was agreed to repair damage to the ozone layer. I still find it incredible that almost 200 countries should agree on anything.

It’s also true that it’s deeds, not words, that count. On this point I think Greta Thunberg is both right and wrong. She’s right in that there is a need for urgent action, not just words. Promises have been made before and not kept. But she’s wrong in apparently dismissing the entire COP process and trusting instead in activism. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but I don’t see any credible human alternative to international agreements which set us on a better course to care for the planet.

Our response as Christians should be to keep on praying, keep on proclaiming that Christ is the only real hope for creation, keep on loving our neighbour (especially in the Global South) and keep on demonstrating care for creation in our own lives.