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No More Biodiversity Loss! A rallying call to action for Laudato Si Movement at COP15 

MONTREAL, 5 December 2022 – COP15 comes only a few weeks past COP27 and as expected from the meeting in Sharm-El-Sheik, it is seen to be a groundbreaking moment in the protection of biodiversity. This conference will run from December 7th to the 18th and will hammer out an agreement to address the planet’s biodiversity crisis. 

COP15 stands for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement on international use and protection of the world’s natural resources. Laudato Si’ Movement (LSM) will be participating in this conference in Montreal, Canada. 

On December 9th LSM and a coalition of faith-based partners will have a movie screening of The Letter  and post-screening dialogue titled  Lifting up the Cry of the Earth and of the Poor: Our Moral duty. This event will delve into highlighting the impacts of both climate change and biodiversity with several organizations across faith and religious traditions.

On December 12th, LSM will officially hand over the Healthy Planet Healthy People Petition to the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biodiversity, Ms Elizabeth Mrema. The petition supports Pope Francis’ plea for urgent action and carries the signatures and demands of more than 200,000 Catholics and more than 430 partner organizations, which collectively represent hundreds of thousands of Catholics across six continents. 

The same day, we will also share the SECAM Statement in which Laudato Si’ Movement, SECAM, and the Ecclesial Network for the Congo River Basin (REBAC) call for governments to immediately end the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, which if built, would be the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world.

Finally, on December 13th, we will have a public screening of The Letter at St. Jax Centre. This screening will once again be an opportunity to reflect on the core threats to biodiversity alongside the human stories of the planetary crisis. This film, through the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si, will call audience members and delegates to raise our moral bar for ambitious action. 

The meeting in Montreal provides an avenue to find avenues where nature’s role in combating climate change is likely to be realized and recognized in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.