There’s plenty of time to go

By Roberto Jaramillo SJ, Secretary for Social Justice and Ecology at SJES Rome

The COP assembly is a multifaceted event. It is undoubtedly an important venue for multilateral dialogue, albeit an imperfect and uneven one. This is precisely why it is important to be here: to listen and propose.

At times, it also resembles a strange mixture of a car show, a World Social Forum, an expert convention, the Davos Forum, a carnival, or a demonstration in a public square.

I believe that most participants are unaware of the actual progress of the agreements and negotiations (NDCs, etc.) due to a lack of transparency and real mechanisms of open and democratic participation.
On a positive note, I would like to mention:

• There is the massive participation of young people, for whom the challenges of climate change resonate vitally with their concerns and interests.
• There are a multitude of parallel activities organized by civil society, in which the Church is also a participant and protagonist.
• Indigenous communities are courageous in denouncing the exclusion they suffer through disruptive social actions, despite the manipulation of some of theirs.

We are only on the third day.