Lay missioner Lisa Sullivan calls on world leaders to recognize ecological debt and support communities suffering its consequences.
By Umar Manzoor Shah, UCA News
In a sea of negotiators, lobbyists, and policy experts at the UN Climate Change Conference, Lisa Sullivan stands out for saying it as it is: “This is no longer an environmental problem. It’s a human problem.”
Sullivan, a returned lay missioner now working for the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns in global advocacy and education, is attending COP30 in Belem, Brazil.
“The communities I worked with were on the front lines of the climate crisis,” she told UCA News, adding her realization of this “human problem” comes from “living through years of drought and seeing people go hungry.”
Her journey with the Maryknoll family spans over 40 years, including more than two decades in the parched fields of Venezuela and El Salvador.
Now based in Washington, D.C., her work is spread across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, addressing the needs of communities that bear the brunt of climate change despite contributing little to its causes.
“I saw farmers who couldn’t plant because the rains stopped coming. I saw hunger return to places that once had enough. It made me take a broader look.
“Our missioners are witnesses to climate migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and drought-affected farmers in Africa. Climate change is no longer abstract. It’s the daily reality of our mission,” she noted.
For Sullivan, the path forward begins with accountability. Amid the technical jargon and complex frameworks of COP negotiations, the lay missioner stresses moral clarity on the centrality of ecological debt.
“The bottom line is simple: stop burning, start paying. Stop exploiting, start repairing,” she said.
“The rich nations owe it to the rest of the world”
To stop burning fossil fuels is, for her, the number one issue. And those who profited from them must start paying those affected by it, what Pope Francis called ecological debt.
“The rich nations owe it to the rest of the world,” Sullivan said. “Pope Francis explained it best. It’s like we’re in a burning house. Those who set the fire, the industrialized nations that built their wealth by burning fossil fuels, must pay those who are choking on the smoke without doing any wrong.”
The lay missioner, along with Maryknoll Father Patrick Okok, is at COP30 to bring the voices of affected communities to the notice of experts and policymakers.
This year’s COP has seen an unprecedented presence of Church leaders and faith-based groups, especially from the Global South.
Sullivan describes the experience as “deeply inspiring.”
“Many bishops from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are here, bringing their collective statement on climate justice to the table. Those are the voices we want leaders to hear.”
Voices of faith at COP30
For faith actors, she explained, the message is not just technical but moral.
“Faith communities speak a language people understand. We appeal to conscience. Politicians may ignore science, but they respond to moral conviction. That’s why our presence here matters.”
The Maryknoll movement (composed of priests, brothers, religious women and laypeople) has long focused on empowering poor communities through direct action. Their projects range from agroecological farming to environmental justice in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Closer to home, at their respective headquarters in Ossining, New York, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers installed solar panels that benefit low-income neighbors, and the Maryknoll Sisters created an ecological preserve on their property.
Sullivan believes that faith-based organizations have a crucial role in fixing the broken chain of climate finance.
“The way climate funding currently works is almost absurd. Rich countries lend money to the poor for a crisis they created. It’s as if the arsonist charges the victims for water,” she said.
Climate finance should not come as loans. It should be grants., she added. And faith organizations are uniquely capable of delivering funds directly, transparently, and quickly to communities that need them most.
Sullivan agrees with what critics often say, that U.N. climate talks are detached from reality, but refuses to dismiss the process.
“Yes, COPs are imperfect. But they are the only spaces where every country, big or small, sits together,” she said. “This is where Vanuatu can speak face-to-face with the United States. That’s powerful. We can’t abandon that.”
For her, hope is not naïve — it’s a duty. “If you measure progress in lives, not numbers, you see that action has made a difference. It’s not enough, it’s not on time, but it’s something. We must keep pushing.”
She believes faith communities could be the tipping point and recalls what the deputy head of COP30 said after receiving a statement from Global South bishops.
“He said something powerful: that faith actors have a moral argument that politicians cannot ignore. Technical experts can talk data, but faith speaks to conscience. That’s where real change begins.”
While she celebrates the growing faith presence, Sullivan also sees missed opportunities.
“I’ll be honest. Catholics still have room to grow in interfaith collaboration,” she admitted. “We tend to work in our own lanes. But when faiths unite, our influence multiplies. We can learn a lot from other traditions that have been engaged in this struggle longer.
“Climate change doesn’t discriminate by religion. Neither should our response,” she emphasized.
Click here to listen to Lisa Sullivan’s interview with UCA News.
Featured image: Women look on after a flotilla carrying Indigenous representatives from across Latin America arrived in Belem Nov. 9, 2025, ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP30, in Brazil. A delegation of cardinals, bishops and lay activists gives the Brazil church a strong presence at COP30, taking place Nov. 10-21 in Belém. (OSV News/Adriano Machado, Reuters)
