Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action

In Malawi, dependence on firewood and charcoal as sources of income and for energy needs has led people in the world's fifth poorest country to chop down vast portions of the forest. To reduce deforestation, Carmelite Missionary Sisters are teaching women skills that will not further damage the forests. 

Sisters agree the recent COP26 summit did not go as far as they would have liked, but they plan to keep working toward climate action. "The church has a voice. And it should use that voice," a speaker said during a webinar on the summit. "It's an act of care."

If investments are part of a congregation's charism, then those investments should not harm the Earth, and should actively improve it, attendees heard at the Resource Center for Religious Institutes conference.

Global Sisters Report is supplementing NCR and EarthBeat coverage of COP26, the U.N. climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, with updates and dispatches sent to us by sisters and/or congregational representatives attending COP26 in person or virtually.