Faith-based organisations should be at the climate negotiating table, where the talks starting in Durban on November 28th  were about rebuilding trust between nations.

This was according to International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who spoke at a faith rally at Durban’s Kings Park, on the eve of the opening of the 17th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) conference.

Nkoana-Mashabane, who received a petition signed by more than 200,000 people collected by the Youth Caravan, said while the negotiations would be complicated, getting political leaders to reach out in trust would give hope to those affected daily by climate change.

Promising the youngsters, who cycled from Messina to Durban to deliver the petition in a wooden ark, Nkoana-Mashabane said the petition would be taken seriously.

“Faith-based organisations are critical for the movement towards a climate change agreement. You should have a voice at the negotiating table,” she said.

The poorly attended rally, supported by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and attended by church and civil society luminaries, was organised to present a united civil society front ahead of the climate change talks.

Reassuring Bishop Geoff Davies, who had organised the event, Tutu said the number who attended was not important, as the stadium was filled with angels. He thanked Africans and those from other countries who had helped South Africa fight apartheid.

“But now we have another battle; we are getting ready to fight climate change,” he said.

Mary Robinson, Ireland’s first woman president, who now heads up the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice, said she was delighted that the climate change negotiations had started with a faith rally. “We want to show everyone that they are wrong, that we will succeed (in signing an agreement) here in Durban,” she said.

Environmental activist Braam Malherbe said the climate negotiations were the most important and significant meeting on Earth.

He said terrible crimes against humanity had been committed in the past, such as the holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, but the abuse of the planet was by far the greatest crime committed against humanity. “We haven’t borrowed the Earth from our children; we’ve stolen it.”

He said it would not be possible to come up with solutions using the same mindset that had created the climate problems in the first place.

Christina Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the voice of those at the rally had been heard.

“But this is going to be a long journey. Save your energies and continue with your prayers,” she said.