Sisters for the Environment: Presentation of the Statement

1,900 UISG Superiors General mobilise for COP27 and COP15: “The voices of the most vulnerable must be at the centre of the global debate.”

In the run-up to the UN summits, the statement Sisters for the Environment: Integrating Voices from the Margins is launched in Rome on November 3rd.

Representing over 600.000 Catholic Sisters, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) calls on international development leaders to integrate the voices of marginalised communities in the global debate concerning the environment. It does this through the statement Sisters for the Environment: Integrating Voices from the Margins, launched on Thursday, November 3rd at the UISG headquarters in Rome with support from the Global Solidarity Fund (GSF). The presentation of the statement was livestreamed on the official YouTube channels of UISG in four languages: English, Italian, Spanish and French.

It is necessary to continue “hearing and heeding the voices of those affected by environmental breakdown,” the text states, “both in recognition of their human dignity and as a pragmatic approach to learning from their resilience. Furthermore, integrating the vulnerable as key players within our institutional frameworks, ensuring that voices from the margins are featured centrally in the global dialogue for change, and not confined to advocating from the outside. In particular, incorporating suggestions from indigenous communities to halt or modify projects on or near indigenous land, and ensuring their expertise is included in efforts to mitigate climate change and biodiversity collapse.”

Two other key points of the document concern the need to integrate responses to climate change and biodiversity loss, recognising the interconnected nature of ecological challenges, and to integrate care for people and our planet, “rejecting the anthropocentric vision that underpins habits of destructive consumption.”

Included in the statement is a call to “act immediately to halt biodiversity collapse – ensuring that at least half of the Earth and its oceans become protected areas by 2030 – as well as restore ravaged ecosystems and reduce global dependence on fossil fuels.” Furthermore, the statement calls on global leaders to achieve global consensus on a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and to conclude a new agreement on a United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework.

On one hand, this statement addresses the current emergency by identifying COP27 on climate change and COP15 on biodiversity as essential opportunities to reverse the trends that are destroying our Earth. On the other, it expresses a deep-rooted, faith-driven vision for ecological conversion that has inspired the mission of Catholic Sisters for decades and continues to do so, all around the world. 

Read the full press release

Download the Statement Sisters for the Environment: Integrating Voices from the Margins

Download the Press Kit