CLIMATE JUSTICE

Climate justice recognizes that the climate crisis is not only an environmental problem but an ethical, social and spiritual one: those who have contributed least to global warming suffer its worst consequences, while those who have benefited most from the activities that cause it bear the greatest responsibility to repair the harm. It is the way integral ecology listens to “both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (LS 49) in the face of a changing climate, and it invites consecrated men and women to answer with the radicality of their vocation.

WHAT IT MEANS

• Recognizing that climate change has unequal causes and unequal impacts: the poor, small island states, indigenous peoples, peasants, women, migrants and future generations are the most exposed and the least responsible.

• Acknowledging the “ecological debt” between the global North and South (LS 51–52) and the call for differentiated responsibilities among nations.
• Holding together mitigation (leaving the fossil fuel era behind), adaptation (protecting those already affected) and loss and damage (repairing what cannot be avoided).
• Insisting that a “just transition” must not shift its costs onto the poor, nor repeat extractive patterns, such as the mining of critical minerals, in the name of green energy.
• Moving from technical or market-based answers alone to a conversion of lifestyles, of institutions and of our relationship with creation.

WHY THIS MATTERS

• Global warming has averaged more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels over the last three years, and current policies point to roughly 2.8 °C by the end of the century. Droughts, floods, storms and sea-level rise are already destroying homes, livelihoods, cultures and territories, and forcing people to migrate.
• In July 2025 the International Court of Justice, in a unanimous advisory opinion, confirmed that States have binding obligations to protect the climate system and that breaching them can entail a duty of reparation. Climate justice is no longer only a moral appeal: it is increasingly a legal one.
• Pope Leo XIV urges us to pass “from environmental discourse to an ecological conversion” that transforms both personal and communal lifestyles; Pope Francis called for global and effective rules to safeguard the common home (Laudate Deum 42).

WHY IT CONCERNS RELIGIOUS LIFE

• We live and serve in the places where the climate crisis strikes first and hardest: rural villages, coastal and island communities, urban peripheries, migrant routes, indigenous territories. Many Congregations accompany people who are already losing land, harvests and homes.
• Our charisms are gifts for this moment. Educators, healers, missionaries, contemplatives, carers of the land and defenders of the poor each have a specific way of living climate justice, rooted in the founding intuition of the Institute.
• We are institutions with a footprint: schools, hospitals, farms, retreat houses, buildings, land and financial investments. How we manage them (energy, water, food, ethical investment, divestment from fossil fuels) is itself a prophetic witness.
• Religious Life is a global and intercongregational body, present across continents and in contact with affected communities. This gives us credibility and a voice before the Church, civil society and international bodies, and a responsibility to amplify the voices that are not heard.

A GOSPEL CALL TODAY

Climate justice is not an “extra” to our mission: it is a concrete form of the love of neighbour and of fidelity to our consecration in an age of ecological crisis. The Gospel asks us to stand with the “least of these” (Mt 25), to seek justice for the oppressed, and to care for the creation entrusted to us. Chapter after chapter, Religious have been asked to read the signs of the times: today these signs are floods, droughts and displaced peoples. We are invited to an ecological conversion that touches our prayer, our community life, our budgets, our apostolates and our advocacy, so that our communities become signs of hope, reconciliation and alternative living.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCERNMENT

• Where, in the places of our mission, are the people we serve already suffering the effects of climate change, and what are they asking of us?
• How does the charism of our Congregation help us understand and respond to climate injustice? What would our Founder or Foundress do today?
• What changes in our lifestyle, properties, investments and apostolic works is the Spirit asking of us, so that our witness is credible?
• With which Congregations, Church bodies and civil society networks can we join forces so that our voice reaches decision-makers?

REMEMBER:

“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combatting poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” (Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 139)

KEY REFERENCES

• Francis (2015) Laudato Si’ (esp. nos. 23–26, 49, 51–52 and 169–175)

• Francis (2023) Laudate Deum
• International Court of Justice (2025) Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change
• Interdicasterial document “Journeying towards Care for Our Common Home” (link)
• Jesuits for Climate Justice Campaign (2026) Statement and Policy Brief for COP31 (link)

KEY RESOURCES

• Laudato Si’ Movement (laudatosimovement.org) – global Catholic movement with climate justice campaigns
• Laudato Si’ Action Platform (laudatosiactionplatform.org) – framework for Religious communities to plan and report their commitments
• Loss and Damage Collaboration (lossanddamagecollaboration.org) – analysis and resources on loss and damage
• VIVAT Eco Life and Action (vivatinternational.org/eco)

ORIENTATION TO ENGAGEMENT

Every Congregation and community has its own charism, rhythm and context, so each needs to define its own journey. Four attitudes can help:

1. Start from our charism and our mission. Ask what climate justice looks like in the apostolates and territories where we already serve.

1. Listen before acting. Let the affected communities and the confreres and sisters who accompany them set the agenda.
2. Join personal and structural change. Change our own habits and institutional practices, and support the advocacy that addresses root causes.
3. Walk with others. Share the journey with other Congregations, with diocesan and lay partners and with movements: a critical mass is needed for systemic change.

RECOMMENDED INITIATIVE

The Jesuits for Climate Justice Campaign (JCJC) is an initiative of the Society of Jesus, “Turning Hope into Action”, that invites Jesuits, partners and friends, and all people of goodwill, to pray, learn and act in solidarity with those most affected by climate injustice. Grounded in Catholic Social Teaching and in the experience of the communities Jesuits accompany, especially indigenous peoples and frontline communities, it has issued an updated Statement and Policy Brief for COP31 (Türkiye, November 2026), shaped by the Bonn climate talks of June 2026 and the Santa Marta conference on the transition beyond fossil fuels. It calls on governments to: (1) establish a clear path for a just energy transition guided by common but differentiated responsibilities; (2) increase mainly grant-based funding for the most vulnerable countries without adding to their debt; and (3) build food systems based on food sovereignty and agroecology.

Individuals and institutions can read the full Statement, join the campaign and sign the petition through the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (giansj.org). Other Congregations can draw inspiration from this model of a Religious family that unites prayer, study and advocacy around a common message, and can adapt it to their own charism and networks, for instance by endorsing the statement as an institution or by developing a similar campaign of their own.