From Antalya to Our Doorsteps: Why United Methodists Are Going to COP31
From 9 to 20 November, the world’s governments meet in Antalya, Türkiye, for the UN climate talks. Here is what is at stake, what it has to do with life in an American congregation, and why the church will be in the room.
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On 26 August, a mass of rock and ice broke loose above Nepal’s Langtang Valley and sent a wall of water and debris through Rasuwa district. By mid-October, 1,451 people had been confirmed dead and nearly 6,000 were still missing. Nepal has contributed almost nothing to the emissions that are melting its glaciers. Its people are paying the price anyway.
What is COP31?
COP31 is the 31st Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1992 treaty under which nearly every nation meets each year to carry out the Paris Agreement. This year it runs 9–20 November in Antalya. Türkiye is the host; Australia chairs the negotiations.
Governments are calling it the “implementation COP”: less about new pledges, more about keeping the ones already made. Three questions will show whether it succeeds:
Will help reach people after a disaster? The fund for loss and damage has $2.8 billion in requests from 119 countries but only about $486 million paid in, and it has yet to make its first payment.
Will adaptation funding be measurable? Governments pledged last year to triple adaptation finance by 2035 without setting a baseline to measure it against.
Will the move away from fossil fuels continue, fairly? Countries agreed in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems. Whether that advances, and whether workers and communities are protected, is still contested.
Why this matters in an American pew
The UN climate talks can seem far from a Sunday morning in Ohio or Arizona, but the costs of a warming world are already arriving in American households, and they fall hardest on the people the church is called to stand with: people living in poverty, communities of color, older adults and children. Insurers are dropping homeowners fastest in the places most exposed to wildfire and hurricanes. Electricity prices are rising, and low-income households already spend three times the share of their income on energy that others do. Heat deaths reached a record in 2023, and formerly redlined neighborhoods run about 5°F hotter. Hurricane Helene reached deep into western North Carolina, and disaster recovery itself can widen the racial wealth gap. When disaster strikes, United Methodist churches become shelters, UMCOR helps fund the recovery, and volunteer teams return for years to rebuild.
Why faith voices belong at the table
Faith communities bring a different question into the room: what do we owe one another, and the generations after us? They also bring trust. A UN panel convened after the Nepal flood found that in low- and middle-income countries only about half of the people who receive a disaster warning are able to act on it. In many places, the congregation is the trusted voice that turns a warning into action. Yet faith groups are not a formal constituency in the talks, and while COP28 and COP29 each hosted a Faith Pavilion, none has been announced for Antalya.
Why Methodist voices
John Wesley’s first General Rule was to do no harm. The Social Principles adopted by the 2024 General Conference apply that rule to creation, affirming “that all creation belongs to God and is a manifestation of God’s goodness and providential care” and that “global warming and climate change are already creating extreme conditions that threaten the entirety of life on earth.”
They name the burning of fossil fuels as the greatest single contributor to the crisis, and ask that the shift away from them protect the people affected, calling on society to “strengthen the social safety net to deal with the loss of jobs and income.” They name environmental racism, and commit the church to “strong protections of the land, food, and water rights of indigenous peoples.” The church’s Energy Policy Statement recognizes that “confronting global issues such as climate change, energy inequity, and pollution will require international solutions.” Those solutions, negotiated in Antalya, will shape the lives of millions of United Methodists in the Philippines, across Africa and in Europe.
What the United Methodist delegation will do
The General Board of Church and Society, accredited to the UN climate talks, is sending its own delegation to Antalya, in person and online, drawn from United Methodists in the United States, Europe and the Philippines. The delegation will follow the negotiations on loss and damage, adaptation, climate finance and a just transition, share the church’s positions through side events, conversations and its own reporting, and lift up the voices of Indigenous peoples and frontline communities. GBCS will also join the World Council of Churches’ ecumenical delegation, standing with churches from around the world in shared advocacy and prayer.
Follow along
GBCS will share updates from the delegation before, during and after the conference, which closes on 20 November, on its website and social media channels. After COP31, GBCS will publish a reflection on what was decided in Antalya and what it means for the church. Until then, pray for the negotiators and for every community facing climate loss. As the President of the UN General Assembly said this month, COP31 should be judged “not by the promises we repeat, but by the people we protect.”
