Urgency and hope define our planet’s future

By Vinicius de Paixao, Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Oxford

Today, at COP30, I experienced a profound contrast between urgency and hope.

In the first panel, focused on the cryosphere and the oceans, I was confronted with clear and unsettling data: the accelerated melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, and ocean warming suggest that the time we believed we had to reverse the climate crisis is even shorter.

The cryosphere speaks with the coldness of numbers, yet with the weight of an ethical ultimatum: action is now unavoidable.

Later, I encountered a moment of possibility and relief. Concrete initiatives for a platform to improve the circularity in plastic, aluminium, glass, and paper, many of them led by Brazil, demonstrated that sustainable models are emerging.

This second experience rekindled hope: if science warns, human creativity responds. Between warning and action, I found an invitation to shared responsibility.