Breaking Silos Between Faith and Creation Care
The Christian Climate Observers Program
By Samuel Chiu
October 24, 2022
Later this year (November 6-18), the annual UN Climate Change Conference, a.k.a. COP27 will be held in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt (in full: 27th Conference of Parties, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change). As the first COP after the important Paris Climate Agreement was implemented, representatives from 190+ nations will gather and work on another full agenda.
This year, the discussion topics include a transparent and effective Global Stocktake mechanism for climate mitigation and adaptation measures; settling on a much needed, and long overdue, Climate Finance scheme; and addressing the ever urgent need for supporting less developed nations for Loss and Damage. This last subject is particularly relevant as extreme weather events, in forms of severe droughts, floods, and storms, rampage around the globe with increasing intensity and frequency. These official processes and negotiations will be under the scrutiny of thousands of registered observers from civil society and, once again, A Rocha will be among them (as we have been in past years).
The Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP), for which A Rocha is an organizing partner for the second year, will send a team of 38 people from ten countries to COP27. Sarah Demian, a biology student from Trinity Western University (Langley, BC), and Paris Liu, an engineering student from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ont.) are among several young Canadian participants with CCOP this year.
When asked about their reasons for applying to CCOP, Paris said, “I wanted to bridge the gap between my passion for environmental stewardship and my faith, as most of my life I have kept them in silos.” She would like to gain “a global perspective on the climate emergency and [learn] from fellow CCOP members … how we as Christians, can take climate action to steward God’s creation.”
“I wanted to bridge the gap between my passion for environmental stewardship and my faith, as most of my life I have kept them in silos.”
Meanwhile, Sarah responded that she wants “to learn more about how world leaders are tackling the climate crisis that is affecting all of us, … I believe that God calls us to be stewards of creation, and I expect to return home after COP27 with new environmentally positive ideas that can be implemented within my own community.”
These two young women are among an incredible group of Christians from around the world heading to Sharm-el-Sheikh to observe COP27, engage with leaders, and grow as climate advocates.
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Featured photo: Tony Eight Media (via Unsplash)
