As countries debated a transitional path to clean energy usage, hundreds of faith-based organizations worldwide committed to divest from climate-warming fossil fuels during the U.N Climate Change Conference gatherings in Belém, Brazil.
"We also want to assume our responsibility before God and humanity for what happens with our money and what happens to God's creation," said Pastor Neddy Astudillo of Tampa.
She attended the gathering, known as the 30th Conference of the Parties or COP30, as a delegate from the Presbyterian Church USA.
"It was very good to be there as a Latina living in Florida, living in a state where the government has erased the word ‘climate change’ from its web page," Astudillo said.
Astudillo was invited to speak at a parallel event called the People's Summit, which amplifies voices from undeserved communities most impacted by global warming.
In her talk, she described how environmental racism, human rights and democracy are connected, illustrating her point through current events in Florida.
"The difficulty that we have in Florida of passing laws to protect migrant farm workers from the increasing heat waves," Astudillo said.
“Another example is the building of the Alligator Alcatraz detention center … built in an already climate-vulnerable ecosystem without a prior environmental impact study on the already threatened species, and without the involvement and approval of the Miccosukee people who live and are impacted by the presence of the detention center. Not to mention the impact that this place has on immigrant communities in Florida who are fearing deportation.”
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Astudillo said the meeting's location in the Amazon allowed about 900 indigenous delegates to attend.
"It is a statement of the kind of people who also need to be present in the negotiations, whose lives are being threatened, and whose culture and worldviews and spiritualities also have a say," Astudillo said.
She added that indigenous peoples are the caretakers of 84% of the world's biodiversity and rainforests, which are key to reversing the effects of climate change.
Astudillo is concerned about the location of the next COP in Turkey.
“The last two COPs before Brazil happened in countries that did not have the same freedom for public participation: conversation and marches and the social movements, expressions during the COP,” Astudillo said.
“I'm not sure how it's going to be happening in Turkey, but at least as a Latina, a COP in Latin America provided a space for many more voices to be included in the conversation.”
This was her fifth COP, having attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was established to guide the future climate negotiations.
Astudillo’s husband, Thomas Spaulding, was also there in 1992. He was asked by the national leadership of the YMCA of the USA to take a role in that process.
He was a member of the observer in the U.S. delegation at a time when President George H.W. Bush famously said "the American way of life is not up for negotiation."
“The American way of life should be something about … we all win when the Earth can thrive,” said Spaulding.
“This is not just an economic discussion or an environmental discussion. This is a cultural discussion … and that's one of the reasons why I think the faith community's roles are so important, because it's about morals. It's about ethics. Who are we as a people? What are we passing to our children and our grandchildren and their children?”
Neddy Astudillo mentioned words that moved her from a former delegate of the Philippines with a similar sentiment.
“He said that the climate battles that we face today will not be won in the chambers of the U.N. climate talks," Astudillo said, "but in people's hearts, and that's where faith communities can make a difference."
