COP30 is the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking place in Brazil from 10th November 2025. We had a number of events calling for climate justice, uplifting Earth defenders, and standing in solidarity with some of the most impacted communities.
In the run up to the start of the COP we cohosted an online seminar on Ecoliberation Theology. This was recorded and you can watch it here
30 years on from the first COP the world is still hurtling towards irreversible climate breakdown, and those that have done least to cause it are already bearing the burden. Green Christian and Christian Climate Action organised this joint event to explore how liberation theology can help us navigate the climate crisis, and ask whether looking with an ecoliberationist lens can give us practical and ethical insights to guide our action.
Our speakers:
- Rev Ronald Nathan is a pastor in the AME Zion Church and a public theologian. He has a particular interest in social, racial, and political issues.
- Rev Chris Howson is Chaplain at the University of Sunderland and a liberation theologian. He is the author of “A Just Church: 21st century Liberation Theology in Action”.
- Fr Jean Nyembo SJ served for six years as Managing Director of the Arrupe Centre for Research and Training in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His research focuses on social justice in the context of mining governance.
We organised or joined a number of other vigils, prayers and actions
The first day of COP was a busy one for us.
In the morning we went to pray for Earth Defender Marcus Decker outside his Immigration Tribunal Hearing. Marcus scaled the QE2 Bridge in 2022 to demand that no new oil is recovered from the North Sea. He was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison and despite having served his time, he faced deportation and separation from his family life in the UK. It was a great joy that Marcus won his appeal.
At lunchtime on Monday we were outside BP to pray for those on the frontlines of climate change and the oil companies who fuel the climate crisis. In collaboration with Stop Selling Lies and we were holding Gideon Mendel’s world famous climate flood/fire images to remind BP of the human consequences of their activities.
In the evening we were prayed silently by candlelight outside the Shell Headquarters, followed by poetry and reflections about the Ogoni Nine and the current situation in the Niger Delta and for Earth Defenders everywhere.
10th November 2025 marked the date on which the Ogoni 9 were executed 30 years ago. They were executed, after a blatantly unfair trial, in their fight for justice against Shell in the Niger Delta. For these 30 years, people in the Delta have been tirelessly fighting for justice for the nine men and for justice for all who live in the region. Marking the start of COP 30, it was also a day on which Environmental Human Rights Defenders and communities most impacted by the climate crisis should have been centred in decision-making by those in power. It should not be oil companies and other corporates in the centre of these processes.
You can read more on Shell’s complicity in the arbitrary execution of the Ogoni 9 here
On each morning that week we held vigil outside Shell.
Every day marks another day on which the human rights abuses caused by the operations of companies like Shell continue, and on which Environmental Human Rights Defenders continue to put themselves on the line to push for justice. We cannot ignore the calls of the people whose lives have been most impacted.
On Saturday 15th we co-organised and joined marches and rallies across the country for the Global Day of Action for COP30
Christian Climate Action 