Africa’s cry for Climate Justice: Young Catholic delegate at COP30

By Francesca Merlo - Belém, Brazil

In Belém, the voice of a young Ghanaian negotiator is carrying he weight of an entire continent. Antonio Yayrator Korkuvi, representing the International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements, speaks not only for Ghana, but for Africa - the one young leader chosen to represent a region already living the consequences of a crisis it did little to create.

“We contribute only four percent of global emissions,” he tells Vatican News on the sidelines of the UN's Climate Conference, “but we bear the brunt of climate change.” 

Antonio lives along Ghana’s coast, where each year the sea rises further and further inland. He describes the very tangible consequences. “People lose their homes, their land - everything that ties them to their history,” he explains. “When the sea takes that away, it takes a part of who they are.”

This, he says, is not only physical loss. It is psychological, spiritual, generational. He describes it as a rupture in the thread that binds African communities to the story of their people.

And so at COP30 and, in the negotiation rooms, he has been bringing that reality to all those who understand it less. 

Addressing the imbalance

“This COP was called the ‘Adaptation COP’,” Antonio notes. “But those who caused the problem - the Global North - are hesitant even to provide the finance needed for communities to adapt.”

There is a strong imbalance being addressed at COP, one in which climate finance continues to prioritise mitigation - long-term emissions reductions - while those already suffering cry out for immediate support simply to survive the next storm or the next drought. 

Antonio describes the tension he has experienced in the negotiating rooms. Countries of the Global North guard their positions while countries of the Global South wait.

The need for justice

The word that resonates most with Antonio is justice. He notes that a decade has passed since Laudato si’ urged the world to recognise creation as “our common home.” More recently, he added, Laudate Deum renewed that call with prophetic urgency. 

“These documents are moral compasses,” he says. “But many countries do not act with morality.” He recalls Pope Francis' plea in the Democratic Republic of Congo during his Apostolic Journey, in which he said: “Hands off Africa.” This plea, Antonio noted, was not only for protection from conflict and exploitation, but from the environmental injustices that now threaten the continent’s future.

“It is time for the Global North to listen,” he says, “so that countries suffering the ravaging effects of climate change can build resilience.”

With just a few hours left of COP negotiations, Antonio carries the clear message that care for creation is inseparable from care for the poor as he demands not only policy, but conversion - “an ecological conversion,” he concludes. 

Antonio Korkuvi (right) with delegates from across the world at COP30