We don’t have time. This spells out the urgency, but I would like you to spell out the action that is needed from COP 27 because time is running out. With the alarming weather extremes we are experiencing around the world everyone must now be aware of the reality of global warming and climate change. It is not in the future. It is now. What is not being recognized is that we have to start taking meaningful action now, so that we are reducing carbon emissions by 2025. Our average temperatures have increased by 1.1° or 1.2° C and already we are experiencing horrendous weather extremes. Can you imagine what it will be like at 1.5°, never mind 2° C? Do we really want to go to 1.5°C? What do we need to do if we are to prevent the destruction of life on this beautiful planet and our only home? The IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that limiting global warming to 1,5 degrees Celsius would require ‘rapid and far-reaching’ transitions, in energy, transport and land, which involves agriculture and forestry. So this 2022 COP must agree: • To end all further exploration for fossil fuels, and to end all new extraction and oil pipelines by the end of this year. • To end all deforestation of indigenous trees, including tropical forests. • To start the process of ending agribusiness’s factory farming, returning to ethical, environmentally harmonious farming practices. • To roll out electric transport as a matter of urgency, so that there will be no further production of fossil fuel powered vehicles by the end of this decade. • To apply ethics to our decision making so that we invest in the well-being of people and planet, not profit. Profit and wealth acquisition should not be the deciding factor. Money is the means, the resource, to bring this about, not the end. The goal is planetary well-being. What will be the benefit, the reward, of such drastic measures? It will be a more peaceful and habitable planet for our children and all life on this planet. Furthermore, we should of course abolish war. All disputes can and must be settled by negotiation and arbitration and upheld by all nations. A consequence of this is that we should drastically reduce expenditure on so called “defense”, and in particular agree to the banning of weapons of mass destruction. Funds freed up from armament reduction can be utilized for environmental restoration. For all this to happen, this COP must agree to ask the United Nations to undertake more responsibility and control to implement these decisions. There must be global implementation. For example, the Amazon Rain-forest is not only Brazil’s. It is the world’s. Its destruction is affecting the global climate. If the ending of reliance on fossil fuels is a blow to fossil fuel companies, be aware of the wealth accumulated by fossil fuel companies since the report to the President of the USA in 1985 of the consequences of burning fossil fuels, and realize that the life of the planet is more valuable than money! All a pipe dream? Realize that our future life is dependent on this. Bishop Geoff Davies, Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, Cape Town