Doreen Ajiambo

Debate about how much money countries should direct toward addressing climate change has overlooked the massive spending on weapons and wars, say faith activists at  the U.N. climate conference in Azerbaijan. 

As the U.N. climate change conference reached the halfway point, faith groups appealed for countries to set an ambitious new target to finance the transition to clean energy and adaptation measures for a rapidly warming world.

Donald Trump's looming return has cast a shadow over COP29, say Catholic officials here who worry Trump will not only halt U.S. progress in reducing heat-trapping emissions but also undermine international efforts.

Zambia and other African nations are grappling with an extreme drought, worsened by the effects of climate change. One possible funding source Zambia has waited to access is the loss and damage fund, established in 2022 under the United Nations. 

With financing the focus at the U.N. climate conference, the Vatican secretary of state delivered to world leaders Pope Francis' appeal that wealthy nations use the 2025 Jubilee to forgive debts "as a matter of justice."

Catholic and faith representatives will join global leaders and national delegates Nov. 11-22 in Baku, Azerbaijan, host to the United Nations climate change conference, COP29. 

Left without shelter or access to infrastructure following severe floods, Kenyans live in vulnerable conditions in camps for displaced people, where sisters regularly minister to them.

At St. Josephine Bakhita Babies Home in Busia, western Kenya, religious sisters and social workers take in abandoned and orphaned newborns in a region that has seen rising cases of incest and maternal mortality.

Catholic leaders and sisters have rescued thousands of children and young girls in Sierra Leone from sexual abuse, offering guidance and counseling, justice and education.

Years of deforestation, overgrazing, overcultivation and climate change have robbed Zambian soil of its nutrients. Catholic Relief Services is helping farmers adapt to the challenges. 

With Malawi and other southern African countries still reeling nearly 10 months after Cyclone Freddy, Catholic sisters gathered to learn advocacy skills to lobby on the neglected survivors' behalf.

Nearly 10 years after West Africa's Ebola outbreak, survivors in Sierra Leone continue to live with stigma, isolated from their communities and jobs. Catholic sisters offer education, hope and help. 

Catholic sisters foster healing and reconciliation for survivors of Sierra Leone's civil war, many of whom now find themselves neighbors with former rebel soldiers who killed their families during the conflict.

Maasai tribespeople and their supporters, including sisters, face intimidation as the Tanzanian government, in the name of conservation and tourism, has tried to force the Maasai from their northern ancestral land.

A Kenya hospital founded in 1964 and owned by the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar now has 200 beds for inpatient services and specialized doctors to treat life-threatening conditions of Kakuma Refugee Settlement residents. 

The U.N.'s Kakuma camp in Kenya is home to more than 200,000 refugees from across Africa. At special risk are LGBTQ persons, who say religious leaders in the camp incite followers against them.

Despite a prolonged drought in Kenya, Catholic sisters help ward off mass hunger by providing food relief and "transformative solutions" that keep traditionalist villagers in isolated areas from becoming dependent on aid.

Catholic groups welcomed the historic deal reached at the United Nations climate summit to establish a "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries, even while negotiations fell short in other areas, they said.

Catholic sisters are among thousands of activists worried the slow progress of COP27's negotiations on a loss and damage fund risks the likelihood nations will deliver and build upon climate commitments.

"God, we seek your intervention at this sacred place where Moses received the Ten Commandments," Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi said, leading Catholics in prayer at Mount Sinai Nov. 14, during U.N. climate change negotiations.