On August 22nd, in a webinar related to COP16 on Biodiversity, organized by the Lutheran World Federation, CAN Latin America, Christian AID and others, the invited speaker, Natalia Greene, Global Coordinator and Cofounder of Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature), said (paraphrased):

“We cannot talk about climate change without talking about Biodiversity and its conservation. What happens when we don’t connect the two is that we (in the Global North) easily say: ‘… to reduce fossil fuels, let’s all get an electric car!’ These quick climate and so called ‘green’ solutions deny the fact that they are having a negative impact on indigenous people’s rights to manage their own territories, is impacting their capacity to protect biodiversity, and having access to clean water, clean air, clean soils. Their culture, spirituality and livelihoods are at stake, when we don’t consider Biodiversity in our climate solutions.”

Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo, Coordinator of the Spanish Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith, attended the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali, Colombia in October as part of a grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science Ethics and Religion initiative.

During her time in Colombia, Rev. Dr. Astudillo launched a series of Spanish-language Webinars on the intersection of Climate, Faith, and Science. The first webinar, “Peace with nature, biodiversity, and climate change” was livestreamed from Colombia featuring Nathaly Quito, Coordinator of the Climate Justice program at the Lutheran Church in Colombia and Eliana Álvarez Grueso, expert on Biodiversity and Climate Change. They spoke to the reasons why climate change and biodiversity loss need to be tackled together, and what “Peace with Nature”, the theme of this COP16, means for Colombians after 52 years of civil war. Watch a recording of this webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/@PLTSclimatejusticeandfaith/streams

Rev. Dr. Astudillo was asked to speak at a number of official UN COP16 events and several side events where she shared 1) why COP16 is important for people in Latin America; 2) How we might collaborate across faith institutions; 3) What people of faith are doing in Latin America on biodiversity conservation/protection. She addressed these topics while speaking on a panel at a UN press conference on biodiversity; at a meeting with the UN COP16 Secretariat, Astrid Schomaker; and an event with students, alumni, faculty, and staff of the Baptist University in Cali. At the Faith Pavilion, Rev. Dr. Astudillo facilitated conversations with members of the Latin American Faiths for Climate Justice network including: Laudato Si Movement (Colombia), Tearfund (Peru and Bolivia), Memoria Indigena (Panamá), Institute for the study of Religions ISER (Brazil), and members of the Episcopal Church in Colombia, including Bishop Elias Garcia Cárdenas.

Neddy also represented PLTS as a co-author of the recently released Faiths for Biodiversity report “Uniting for Nature”. This report discusses biodiversity loss at an international scale and was funded by the European Union. You can see the full report here.