By Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno, S.J., President, Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA)
His Eminence Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno was the Archbishop of Huancayo, Peru, before he was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis to whom he was a close friend and confidant. His thoughts informed the ideas that the late pope articulated in Laudato Si’. The cardinal also played a lead role in organizing the Pan-Amazonian Synod of 2019 which led to the creation in 2021 of the Bishops’ Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) that he currently presides.
As a vocal and fearless defender of their social, economic, political and ecological rights, Cardinal Barreto is known for standing with Amazonian Indigenous peoples in their struggles against abuses perpetrated by mining corporations. A staunch ally of Development and Peace ― Caritas Canada, he has long supported many of our projects and programs, including our 2019 For our Common Home campaign.
The cardinal was the guest of honour at the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum that we co-organized with KAIROS Canada in Calgary, Alta. His keynote address, delivered in Spanish on Friday, June 13, 2025, and reproduced here in translation with his kind permission, is a moral message for G7 leaders that challenges them to act conscientiously at the G7 Summit in nearby Kananaskis.
On the eve of the G7, in which Canada will host the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries, we are living in a severe socioenvironmental crisis that disconcerts and discourages us. We see no immediate solutions. We are paralysed and powerless in the face of the multiple challenges we face as humanity.
However, something new is being born; a faint light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. We are living not in an era of change, but in a change of era. This is a propitious time, a kairos, as the Greeks called it, to indicate that it is a time for transformation of the individual and of society. In the Christian tradition, kairos describes “God’s time,” i.e., moments of grace to dream and act together as a human family; to learn from history, which is the teacher of life; and to consolidate processes of fraternity, listening and joint action to seek the common good of humanity and of future generations.
This kairos urges us to correct past mistakes that have affected and continue to affect people and our “common home,” our mother Earth, and urges us to step out of ourselves, out of our own personal and group interests, to unite hearts and minds, recognizing our brightnesses and our dark spots, our joys and sorrows, our anguish and hopes as humanity. Unlike chronos, which refers to chronological or sequential time, kairos represents a special time, when something significant happens for the good of humanity.
In this year 2025, in the Jubilee of Hope, we are pilgrims, and we are invited to a conversion of minds and hearts. The Jubilee is the expression of the kairos, as a historic opportunity for developed countries to recognize, as a matter of urgency, their ecological debt to developing countries, a consequence of the exploitation of natural resources, and the resulting corrosion of the land with polluting waste.
Whereas the 2000 Jubilee focussed on the cancellation of financial debts owed by the poorest countries to the rich nations, Pope Francis, in calling for the 2025 Jubilee, turned this around, stressing that developed nations are also debtors of an even more urgent debt: the ecological debt. This, Francis argued, must be paid without delay to prevent the future of the environment from being irrevocably damaged. His call was intensified in the apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum (2023), strategically proclaimed a month before the COP28 in Dubai to put pressure on the richest countries and warn them of the imminent risk of reaching a “point of no return” (LD, 56).
The current geological period, known as the Anthropocene, is marked by irresponsible human behaviour towards nature. This mindset has had several negative impacts on the world, especially on the Amazon biome and the people who live there. The impacts are multiple and interconnected, such as deforestation; loss of biodiversity; and water, land and air pollution, which to a large extent have serious effects on people’s health and bring about the forced displacement of the population.
One human activity that has caused many negative impacts on the planet is extractivism, which has a long history in my country, Peru.
When I was Archbishop of Huancayo, Peru, I could not remain silent about the serious health situation of the population of La Oroya, which until 2012, was one of the five cities with the most polluted air in the world. From 1928 until 2012, a polymetallic smelter whose fumes were highly toxic to the health of the population, was in operation.
A study in December 2004 showed that children under the age of six had on average more than 55 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood. The World Health Organization indicated that 5 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood was highly harmful.
An inter-religious movement, in which I participated as Archbishop of Huancayo, challenged a foreign company, its workers and the Peruvian state itself in defence of the life and dignity of people. In July 2012, the company operating the smelter declared bankruptcy and ceased operations.
Such human activities as extractivism, among others, emit greenhouse gases, contribute to global warming, which alters weather patterns and causes extreme droughts or floods in the region: climate change.
From a statistical point of view, we can speak of great inequalities. The more “developed” societies cause, to a large extent, greenhouse gases. However, low-income communities and Indigenous populations are the most affected by extreme weather events.
But to my great surprise and indignation, this week I arrived in a city shrouded by smoke. In Calgary, I realized that the forest fires in the north of Alberta―a product of climate change―are also having an impact on the health of Canadians. If climate change is adversely impacting the people of a rich, developed country such as Canada, imagine the impact it must have on our poor, indebted countries!
The financial pressure on the poorest economies has intensified in recent years. The World Bank’s International Debt Report indicated that in 2023, “Developing countries spent a record $1.4 trillion to service their foreign debt as their interest costs climbed to… $406 billion, squeezing the budgets of many countries in critical areas such as health, education, and the environment.”
A message for G7 leaders
This climate injustice compels us to denounce this glaring inequality and affirm the moral requirement to insist that the Global North must recognize the ecological debt owed to the countries of the Global South to mitigate the serious effects of climate change.
As developing countries respect their external debt payments, developed countries must also assume the ecological debt to the affected countries whose access to essential resources such as water, food and housing is impacted by these debt payments. This lack of access to essential resources exacerbates poverty and forced migration, creating a cycle of death and destruction that is difficult to break.
Furthermore, when decisions on public policies must be made, the voices of the communities who bear the brunt of the decisions are often not heard. This implies the systematization of social injustice.
Addressing climate change from a socioenvironmental justice perspective means implementing solutions that not only mitigate environmental impacts, but also promote equity and well-being for all humanity, especially the most vulnerable communities.
To initiate a process of socioenvironmental justice, I call on the G7 leaders to propose policies that:
- Significantly reduce demand for products linked to deforestation in the Amazon, such as meatpacking and meat products; soy and soy products for livestock feed in Europe, China and elsewhere; wood products for furniture or paper; and palm oil, the production of which is a common cause of deforestation. Buyers of these products include restaurants and fast-food chains, supermarkets and food companies.
- Finance the conservation and restoration of the Amazon and other fragile regions with fair and accessible climate funds to preserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change. This requires the implementation of comprehensive sustainable reforestation projects, planting native species to recover forest cover and biodiversity. Similarly, soil rehabilitation projects are needed with agroforestry techniques and the use of compost, as well as remediation projects in areas contaminated by oil spills.
- Respect the rights and cultures of indigenous peoples and support their role as guardians of the forest, their contribution in the planning and implementation of restoration projects and their role to ensure social and environmental sustainability.
For its part, the Global South should:
- Protect its ecosystems as part of its sovereignty and common future and implement ancestral wisdom and a whole and unbroken interrelationship between people and their natural environment.
- Commit to a sustainable development model, with the participation of local communities.
- Demand respect and international cooperation and carry out integral development and nature restoration projects with transparency and solidarity.
The multidimensional crisis we are experiencing with the Anthropocene includes wars, climate change and forced migrations. Pope Francis tells us in the papal exhortation Querida Amazonia, “The beloved Amazon region stands before the world in all its splendour, its drama and its mystery” (QA, 1). It shows us the commitment that we now take on with determination and firmness (QA, 7):
“I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.
“I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.
“I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.
“I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features.”
In conclusion, the fight against climate change must go hand in hand with the search for social justice. Only in this way can we build a more equitable and sustainable future for all. It is a moral imperative to fight inequity.
Therefore, I invite you to take up and share our commitment. RESTORING AND CARING FOR THE AMAZON AND ITS PEOPLES IS A SIGN OF HOPE FOR ALL HUMANITY.
We are all, absolutely all, players in this essential commitment to work together―society, governments, business, churches, faith communities, social organizations―to enact and make real the dreams of a fraternal, just and peaceful humanity, which cares for nature, our common home.