By Bokani Tshidzu, Operation Noah Campaign Officer
Last summer, we wrote about the inseparable link between fossil fuels and conflict. We observed that where there is oil and gas prospecting and extraction, violence, exploitation and the erosion of human rights often follow. This month, that pattern has sadly repeated itself with devastating clarity in Venezuela, the country with the world’s largest oil reserves.
We watched as American forces engaged in the seizure of oil tankers before bombing the capital city of Caracas, killing at least 100 people including civilians. American military forces then abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Reflecting on the abduction, American President Donald Trump stated that one of his aims was for US oil companies to fix Venezuela’s ‘broken infrastructure’ and to ‘start making money for the country’.
Geopolitical tensions are also surfacing in the Arctic, where the US has made threats to acquire Greenland by force in the name of ‘national security’. There is a tragic irony in this given that Greenland’s strategic importance has only increased due to human-caused global heating melting its ice, opening up shipping lanes and making its mineral resources more accessible.
The territorial ambitions of the US and China, alongside Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – which continues to be financed by Russian fossil fuel exports – have triggered a global surge in military spending, diverting funding away from climate adaptation and foreign aid.
Our first response as Christians must be a profound desire for peace. The loss of life and the suffering of civilians should cause us deep sorrow and lament. And the use of military force to secure oil stands in direct opposition to the teachings of the Church. As Pope Leo XIV stated in his message for the 2026 World Day of Peace, ‘The peace of the risen Christ is an unarmed and disarming peace…when we treat peace as a distant ideal, we cease to be scandalized when it is denied, or even when war is waged in its name.’
The violent acquisition of oil and gas is deeply misguided on a number of levels; it’s not only unethical but also absurd in light of the fact that many countries are now adopting solar and wind energy at an extraordinary pace as it is cheaper and more reliable than fossil fuels. There is a real danger – and a bitter irony – that violence is being perpetrated and funded for what may, in the not so distant future, be of relatively little financial value.
Today’s geopolitical tensions remind us of the urgent need to end the fossil fuel era and to build a renewable energy future. Moving away from fossil fuels as fast as possible is not just a climate imperative, but also a peace imperative. The fossil fuel industry relies on resources that can be fought over, yet as climate campaigner Bill McKibben writes, we should instead build a world that runs on energy which ‘can’t be hoarded or controlled’.
There has been a troubling inevitability to the reporting of recent events and a reluctance on the part of many world leaders to condemn these actions. Therefore, more than ever, the Church must courageously condemn violence as well as advocate for – and build – a greener future.
We must remember the words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks’ (Isaiah 2:4). In 2026, beating our ‘swords’ into solar panels is a faithful path to a more peaceful and more sustainable world.
