Faith Groups in Africa Convene ahead of COP30 to Foster Participation in Climate Summits

Nairobi, 29 July, 2025 / 9:30 PM

Faith groups in Africa have gathered in Kenya’s capital Nairobi to deliberate on ways to boost their participation in climate summits ahead of the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) and the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

In an interview with ACI Africa on the sideline of the Monday, July 28 event that the Laudato Si’ Movement in Africa (LSM) organized, the movement’s programs manager found it unfortunate that faith leaders are hardly ever given a platform when it comes to climate summits, especially the COPs.

“We are here today to chart the way forward for faith-based participation in some of these summits, particularly the Africa Climate Summit and also the COP30,” Ashley Kitisya said.

The LSM official who was among other oganizers of the event added, “We are doing this from an African perspective, as various movements of faith that care about climate justice and other issues that plague the African continent—social justice issues.”

She said the fact that Africa is at the centre of climate crisis, experiencing unprecedented floods, droughts, and displacement, deeply affecting the communities calls for participation of faith-based communities on the continent in seeking solutions to the crisis.

“Recognizing the vital moral and societal role of faith leaders and movements, this roundtable aims to elevate our powerful voice in shaping climate policy and fostering a just transition aligned with our shared faith values,” she said.

Organized ahead of the second African summit scheduled for September 8 to 10 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and COP30 scheduled for November 10 to 21 in Brazil, the event featured interfaith prayers and reflections and testimonies from frontlines across Africa.

The Nairobi convention also featured discussions on fossil fuel phase-out, climate finance, and climate adaptation, and also discussions on how to strengthen collaboration among faith-based climate actors.

“For a long time now, we have not been bringing forward our agendas. We really want to bring the agendas of the people moving forward,” she said, adding that the July 28 Nairobi convention was a product of listening, with climate movements and activists calling for joint effort in addressing climate injustice.

Advocacy on climate injustice, Ms. Kitisya said “is something that we want to continuously do and really create a platform where all faiths can all come together and engage in this mechanism.”

In the July 28 interview with ACI Africa, the Kenyan Catholic environmentalist explained why faith leaders are essential in discussions on climate injustice at both continental and global levels.

“You cannot have conversations about Africa without having conversations with faith leaders because that is where most of the masses gather. That is their source of nourishment. That is their source of hope,” she said.

She noted that religious platforms, owing to the masses they lead, are the best places where dialogues on social issues can be done.

 “Faith leaders increasingly have an importance and they need to really step up. They are trying with different departments of environment, but they can step up in terms of speaking about and articulating these environmental issues,” Ms. Kitisya said.

She agreed that a lot still needs to be done in terms of creating spaces for religious communities to engage on social issues.

And acknowledging “some positive strides from the Catholic Church because of the various agencies that they have”, Ms. Kitisya challenged other faith communities to also create platforms where different faiths can come together, learn, and take the message back to the grassroots.