Within the framework of COP30, the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) actively participated in the panel “Urgent action against climate change and the promotion of socio-environmental justice,” held in the Blue Zone – Countries Pavilion, CAF Room (PV b25). The meeting brought together leading global voices to reflect on the challenges of the climate crisis and the need for committed responses from all sectors.
Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., president of CEAMA, offered a profound and prophetic intervention in which he emphasized that COP30 is “hope put into action.” He recalled that, since the 1992 Rio Summit, humanity has accumulated diagnoses and commitments, but actions have been insufficient in the face of the gravity of the planetary emergency. In light of Laudato Si’ and Laudate Deum, he insisted that the world no longer faces only “the cry of the earth and the poor,” but a shared suffering that also affects the middle classes and the most developed countries, highlighting the urgency of immediate and courageous decisions.
The cardinal stressed that this COP, held in the heart of the Amazon, constitutes a Kairos, an opportune time for humanity: “a moment to dream and act together as a human family,” in the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee. In this regard, he echoed Pope Francis’ call regarding the ecological debt that the Global North owes to the Global South, a moral and structural debt that, he said, “must be paid off without delay, so that the life and dignity of peoples are not continued to be sacrificed.”
During his presentation, he denounced the growing inequality between developed countries and vulnerable economies, recalling that while the former have technologies to reduce their environmental impact, the latter allocate disproportionate resources to paying off foreign debt, compromising essential areas such as health, education, and environmental care. “This cycle of death must be broken,” he said, warning that indigenous and low-income communities continue to be the most affected and, paradoxically, among the least heard in global decision-making spaces.
At the same time, Cardinal Barreto pointed to signs of hope. He highlighted initiatives emerging from civil society and the private sector in the Peruvian Amazon—such as AMANATARI in Loreto and the LXG ‘Tayta Pancho’ fund in Madre de Dios—as concrete examples of projects that protect biodiversity and empower local communities. “Great changes are born from small seeds,” he said, encouraging the multiplication of these initiatives and the assumption of concrete commitments in each territory.
The event also featured the participation of:
• Cardinal Felipe Neri Ferrão (FABC)
• Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, Archbishop of Manaus
• Cristian Asinelli, Executive Vice President, CAF
• Carlos Greco, Rector of UNSAM (RUC)
From CEAMA, Cardinal Barreto’s speech reaffirms the conviction that socio-environmental justice is an ethical, spiritual, and political imperative. “Now is the time to act,” he concluded, “because in the wounded faces of the poor we find the suffering of Christ and the cry of an Amazon that cannot wait any longer.”