CAREYSBURG, Montserrado — Some Liberian religious leaders have joined a continent-wide, interfaith movement to acknowledge and address climate change and how it is ravaging Africa.
By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh with New Narratives
The Liberian chapter of the African Faith Network on Climate Justice was inaugurated here by religious leaders from nine African countries over the weekend during a conference. The conference brought together 60 people comprising faith leaders from the Liberian Council of Church, the National Muslim Council, civil society actors, and climate change activists.
“Climate change is about livelihoods,” said Rev. Chris Toe, one of the chief organizers of the conference. “In Liberia, in terms of our engagement on climate change, we have not faced any religion that is opposed to climate change being real. Climate change is not about politics, and there is no other planet ‘B’ for us to exist. So, we all need to care for the planet. Climate change impacts know no religion.”
The network aims to raise awareness among congregants of the impacts of climate change and encourage governments to do more to help people adapt. Religious leaders under the umbrella of the Liberia Council of churches, and Imams on the frontline, are taking to their pulpits and mosques to educate their worshipers about the factors leading to climate change, the danger climate change is having worldwide, including Liberia.
Climate justice activists welcomed the move by religious leaders to get involved in climate crisis mitigation.
“This is a very important news that some clergymen are taking on the fight against climate change,” said Jonathan Stewart, head of Agro Tech Liberia, a local NGO that is working with Liberian farmers and university students to build their capacity to adapt. “It is good to establish that the impact of climate change affects everyone including members of the religious community, so it is very prudent that leaders of the religious community use their platform to call for concerted and inclusive effort on climate change.”
Religious leaders at the conference said there was no way to deny the devastation being felt in African countries even as Africans contribute only 4 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.
Organizers said there is a united front among the members of the Liberia Council of Churches whose membership comprises 35 denominations. Leaders from West and East Africa said they too have begun taking steps to educate their congregants about the climate crisis and buttress governments’ efforts to find human solutions to a crisis caused by humans.
Reverend Bliss Agbeko, chairperson of the African Faith Network on Climate Justice, told attendees that climate change is everybody’s business. He said human beings largely contributed to the crisis, as it requires collective action as well as the religious communities to solve it.
“Humans are contributing negatively to the destruction of the earth,” Rev. Bliss told attendees. “Studying the scriptures, we realized that God presented a very beautiful creation for humans to occupy, possess, and take care of, but activities engaged in over time, are causing the earth to go back.”
At the interfaith conference in Monrovia, Rev. Bliss issued a plea to all humans to join in finding and taking steps to mitigate the damage.
“The human beings that have caused the negative things to the earth must now reverse and contribute to nature in a way of preserving, sustaining and maintaining the creation and if we fail to do it, eventually we would destroy ourselves.”
Climate change continues to take a toll on the world. While countries like China, the US, and India contribute most of the emissions, low-resource countries like Liberia often suffer the worst impact. Sea level rise badly affected Liberia’s coastal communities wiping away hundreds of homes, too much rainfall and sunshine are destroying the livelihoods of farmers.
In June this year, several hours of heavy downpours resulted in flooding and that affected about 48,000 people, in 37 communities in three counties. One person was killed, and two children were seriously injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
In late March, the disaster management agency warned that more than 100,000 people were expected to be affected by three major climate-related disasters, floods, windstorms, and coastal erosion. The World Bank Group Risk Profile in 2024 projected heavier downpours of rain this year than in previous years. The Liberia Council of Churches and the interfaith network on climate justice told this paper that they are convinced that because climate change affects families in both mosques and churches, creating awareness among followers about climate change and taking steps can help reduce the risks and change people’s attitude about the things they do that negatively affect the climate.
In other parts of the world, there are still denials and different theories among adult Christians and faith about the climate crisis as well as the denial that climate change is caused by human activities on the earth.
A case in point is shown in a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.
Pew Research Institute survey of 5,192 adults conducted online in all 50 states in June 2023, showed that, despite growing climate calamities, American opinions have not moved. No religious group topped one-third of respondents agreeing that climate change was a crisis.
American Jews were the most likely to say so at 32 percent. This was followed by 31 percent of Hispanic Catholics, 22 percent of White mainline Protestants, 20 percent of White Catholics, 19 percent of Black Protestants, and 16 percent of Hispanic Protestants.
Those views were shared in a year in which the US had 23 weather and climate disasters that cost more than $1 billion each in damage, including Hurricane Idalia in Florida, wildfires in Hawaii, which killed 97 people, and the hottest temperatures on record.
Rev. Toe, Secretary General of the Liberia Council of Churches told this paper that religious leaders in Liberia can have a huge influence over followers, and using their places of worship to share important messages about climate change can make a huge difference.
Outlining other climate change activities carried out by the group he said for the past three years, the Liberia Council of Churches and chapters across Bong, Nimba, and Gbarpolu, have been planting trees and supporting solid waste management to help protect against climate change damage, pollution and biodiversity loss.
In Gbarnga, Bong County, Toe said the group has planted more than 2,000 trees, while the same is ongoing in Gbarpolu with the technical support of the Liberia Forestry Development Authority. The goal he said is to protect communities against windstorms related disasters. The are clubs across 11 of Liberia’s 15 counties.
At the conference faith leaders adopted a set of action plans with three key elements: 1. conducting an assessment to understand climate change impacts on the country, 2. developing advocacy tools, and 3. using various religious settings (mosques and churches) to raise awareness about climate change.
Stewart of Agro Tech described the continued resistance of religious leaders in other countries to accepting human roles in climate change as disappointing.
“It is sad to know that at this critical point of human existence, people are still in denial of climate change when we all can see the impacts on human lives visible throughout all regions of the world.”
At the global conference on climate change, COP28 in Egypt in 2022 inter-faith leaders presented on the top of the memorialized mountain Mont Sanai, presented what they considered the 10 principles of Climate Repentance otherwise known as the ‘Prophetic Call for Climate Justice.
During that declaration, they called for collective and substantial action to help the world deal with the global impacts of climate change. Liberian inter-faith leaders say, joining the campaign on climate change is all geared towards finding solutions to the global problem.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of its Climate, Land, and Water Justice Project. Funding was provided by the US Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.
