Lord Jim Wallace emphasises the importance of speaking up for the most vulnerable people at the UN climate change conference COP26, which takes place in Glasgow this month.

I RECALL a sermon in St Magnus Cathedral, sometime before lockdown, when the Rev Fraser Macnaughton talked about the “Wow factor”. It registered with me at an intellectual level. But looking out the window a few days later, I saw two large swans flying past, white feathers flapping majestically against a blue sky – ‘Wow’.

Shortly before the closing session of the General Assembly in May, we received a message from one of our international delegates, the Rev John Probhudan Hira from Bangladesh. He apologised for not having been able to fully attend due to power outages and because, as a senior church person, he was attending to the needs of the people in dire straits, many of whom had lost their homes and possessions, because of Super Cyclone Raas.

He sent stark photographs of the damage wreaked by the cyclone and added: “This is the effects on us of global warming and climate change affecting our coastal areas.”

The swans and the devastation: the awesome wonder of God’s creation, and the pictures of destruction of that creation, with consequent human suffering, which confronted us in the photos sent from Bangladesh.

These are images which I have in mind as I think forward to COP26 in Glasgow: But what thoughts, hopes, and prayers accompany these images?

Surely it is not over-statement to emphasise just how crucial this conference is. In August, the UN Secretary General described the latest analytical report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as ‘code red for humanity’. It warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding caused by human activity. It simply confirmed what those, whose plight John Probhudan Hira had drawn to the General Assembly’s attention, already knew from experience.

In pursuing our commitment to global justice, we must recognise that many of the places and communities – like Bangladesh – which are already experiencing the damaging effects of climate change are among the world’s poorest and most marginalised. Yet they have contributed least to the climate crisis. Some of them may lack the resources or vaccination status to be able to be in Glasgow, in person. So along with other faith groups, we must ensure that the voices of the most vulnerable are heard – and listened to – by the most powerful.

The IPCC report is a wake-up call to the world’s leaders, but it is not wholly fatalistic. There is hope that if global emissions can be halved by 2030 and reach net zero by the middle of this century, there is the prospect of halting and possibly even reversing the rise in global temperatures.

Fine words in Glasgow won’t be enough.

We must pray for both commitments to act and that governments will follow through on them.

But whilst many campaigners share our practical and political commitment to a just and green future, I believe it is important to anchor our commitment in a context of faith.

Created in the image of God, we are very much part of creation and should be conscious that acts which damage the created world damage us all.

Created in the image of God, we are very much part of creation and should be conscious that acts which damage the created world damage us all.

Psalm 104 expresses how God delights in and sustains all His creation. The psalmist’s response is an outpouring of joyful praise – the spontaneous ‘Wow’ factor. And surely too, a potent reminder of our responsibility to the whole created world as to how we live our daily lives.

Our faith demands our commitment, but it also gives us hope. We know we are not alone.

As people of faith, we trust God always to be present with us inspiring that hope, however bleak the situation. So, in the days leading up to and during the COP, let us pray that our leaders will be so guided that God’s will is done on earth. 

Lord Jim Wallace of Tankerness is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 2021/22.