Global climate reparations means that responding to the climate crisis requires not only reducing emissions, but repairing the harm: acknowledging historical responsibility for the extraction, colonial domination and pollution that fuelled the crisis, and redirecting resources and decision-making power to the communities that have suffered most and contributed least. It is an application of climate justice that asks who owes what to whom, and who decides how repair is carried out. The notion is debated, and is expressed in different ways in international negotiations (climate finance, loss and damage, ecological debt); frontline movements use the word “reparations” to stress accountability and repair rather than charity.

WHAT IT MEANS

  • Recognizing that the climate crisis has a history: centuries of colonialism, slavery, extraction of land, labour and natural resources moved wealth from some peoples to others and left the former most exposed to climate harm.
  • Acknowledging an “ecological debt” between the global North and South (LS 51–52), and the fact that the poor’s “foreign debt” often becomes a means of control, which does not happen with the ecological debt owed to them.
  • Moving from mitigation alone to repair: restoring what was taken or destroyed, from land, water and livelihoods to cultural and spiritual heritage, and supporting communities displaced by climate harm, including their right to remain, to migrate and to return.
  • Shifting power as well as money: climate finance that comes as loans and is decided far away can deepen debt; reparative finance favours grants and non-extractive forms of resourcing, governed by the frontline communities themselves.
  • Seeing frontline communities (Indigenous peoples, Black and Afro-descendant communities, peasants, island and coastal peoples) not as beneficiaries but as leaders holding knowledge, rights and solutions.

WHY THIS MATTERS

  • Those least responsible for global warming live with its greatest impacts, while much of today’s climate finance reaches them as loans: more than 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt payments than on health or education, so every new disaster deepens the debt.
  • The finance on offer is far below the need. The target agreed at COP29 (USD 300 billion per year by 2035) is widely seen as insufficient, and the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, launched at COP30 had received pledges of only some USD 800 million, a small fraction of the hundreds of billions needed each year.
  • The International Court of Justice, in its 2025 advisory opinion, confirmed that States have binding climate obligations and that breaching them may entail a duty of reparation. The question of repair is entering international law.
  • Frontline movements are already organizing: in 2024 over 200 leaders met in Nairobi and shaped a shared definition of climate reparations (repair, accountability and collective governance), and in 2025 frontline and faith leaders from 24 countries met in Rome during the Jubilee to commit to concrete pathways from extraction toward accountability and solidarity.

WHY IT CONCERNS RELIGIOUS LIFE

  • The Church has a tradition of Jubilee (Lev 25): rest for the land, release of debts, return of what was taken. Pope Francis linked the Jubilee 2025 to debt relief for poor countries and to the recognition of the ecological debt, and invites us to turn this tradition into action.
  • Many Congregations have a long history in the territories most affected, and are asked to look honestly at our own past: our presence in colonial contexts, the land, buildings and wealth we hold and how they were acquired, and the Church’s repudiation, in 2023, of the “doctrine of discovery” that justified the dispossession of peoples. Repair begins with truth and conversion.
  • We are not only advocates but owners and managers: of properties, investments, funds and networks. Reparative thinking asks whether and how these resources can be placed at the service of communities that have been wronged, with respect for their governance.
  • Our communities accompany people displaced or impoverished by climate harm, and are able to connect them with international solidarity networks and bring their voice to the Church and the world.

A GOSPEL CALL TODAY

Zacchaeus, once he encountered Jesus, promised to give half of his possessions to the poor and to repay fourfold anyone he had defrauded (Lk 19:8). Salvation reached his house when justice reached his victims. As Religious, we are called to walk the same path of conversion: not only to feel compassion, but to recognize what is owed, to make amends, and to share power and resources so that those wronged may live in dignity. Climate reparations is a call to live our Jubilee tradition and our vow of poverty with historical and structural awareness.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCERNMENT

  • What is the history of our Congregation in the places where the effects of climate harm and extraction are most evident? What do we need to acknowledge, learn and, if appropriate, repair?
  • How do we use our properties, funds and investments? Could they be placed more directly at the service of frontline communities, giving priority to grants, long-term accompaniment and community-led decision-making?
  • What does our charism suggest about how to walk with Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other frontline communities, as companions rather than benefactors?

REMEMBER:

“The foreign debt of poor countries has become a way of controlling them, yet this is not the case where ecological debt is concerned.” (Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ 52)

KEY REFERENCES

  • Francis (2015) Laudato Si’ (esp. nos. 51–52 and 170).
  • Francis (2023) Laudate Deum.
  • Francis (2024) Spes non confundit (Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee 2025), on debt relief and ecological debt.
  • Dicastery for Culture and Education and Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (2023) Joint Statement on the “Doctrine of Discovery”.
  • International Court of Justice (2025) Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change.
  • Taproot Earth (2026) “The Future Is Made of Coral”, report on climate finance (link)
  • Taproot Earth (2025) Global Climate Reparations Jubilee Convening Report, Rome (link)
  • Taproot Earth (2024) Global Climate Reparations Governance Assembly Report, Nairobi (link)

KEY RESOURCES

ORIENTATION TO ENGAGEMENT

Reparation is a demanding theme, and each Congregation will approach it according to its history, charism and context. Four attitudes can help:

  1. Begin with truth. Study our own history and our relationship with the communities and territories concerned, with humility and without defensiveness.
  1. Follow frontline leadership. Listen first. Support what communities themselves propose and govern, and avoid replacing their decisions with ours.
  2. Start with what we have. Look at our assets, networks and voices: even modest, regular commitments are meaningful signs of repair.
  3. Proceed with discernment and in relationship. Take time, consult the Congregation, seek advice on legal and financial implications, and build long-term partnerships.

RECOMMENDED INITIATIVE

The Reef (Fund and Ecosystem) is an initiative of Taproot Earth, a US-based non-profit organization that advances Global Climate Reparations, grounded in Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty and frontline community governance. The Reef is intended to be “Global Climate Reparations in action”: a frontline-governed alternative to conventional climate finance, shaped by a global network of frontline leaders and facilitators.

Its two parts are: the Reef Fund, a mechanism to move resources to frontline climate solutions under frontline governance, through grants and other non-extractive forms of resourcing (financial capital, land, technical support, investment in community capacity) that keep value in the communities; and the Reef Ecosystem, the network of frontline communities, community-governed funds, movements and technical and financial partners that builds the relationships and shared infrastructure for reparative finance. In contrast with the status quo, power lies with frontline communities, resources come as grants instead of debt-creating loans, accountability is defined by the community, and the benefits remain rooted in the places concerned.

The Reef is still taking shape: governance and standards are being co-designed (with convenings in Ireland in August 2026 and Cabo Verde in October 2026), pilots of community-governed distribution are planned next, and the goal for 2030 is a stand-alone, community-governed Fund able to receive, manage and distribute USD 1 billion. Congregations are invited to follow its development, read the report “The Future Is Made of Coral”, and discern, as appropriate to their situation, how to “grow with” the initiative through relationship, advocacy, or resourcing, after due consultation and consideration of legal and financial aspects. More at taproot.earth/en/reef.

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