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A pastor for 44 years, he has served in several Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession churches in Brazilian communities and was also a seminary professor.
He previously worked at the administrative headquarters of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil in Porto Alegre. Currently, Martini serves as a pastor in Belém do Pará, the city that will host COP30.
“In Belém, we have a Lutheran community that will celebrate 40 years of official registration this year,” he described. “However, its history began back in the 1960s.”
He sees the community as one that has, both in the past and present, been very active in seeking to be a light in the world.
“Because of that, the community has also developed many projects that are typically referred to as ‘social,’ but which we in the church call diaconal, especially focused on children and women,” Martini said. “For instance, we were involved in specific struggles, such as during the construction of the Tucuruí Dam.”
At that time, the parish, together with other ecumenical organizations, developed a project to accompany those who were being displaced and exposed to environmental pollution.
“One very important point I would like to mention is that Belém is a typical Brazilian capital marked by many hardships and challenges,” he said. “I could mention issues like the treatment of sewage, and the very precarious public transportation system.”
At first, when people saw signs that the federal government was investing 400 or 600 million Brazilian reais, there were great expectations: “Wonderful! Our lives will improve!”
But Martini doesn’t see that happening—and he see that more and more people are realizing this, too.
“It’s an investment, I would say, in makeup,” he said. “It’s about presenting some reforms that may be relevant, that might make Belém look a little bit prettier, but mostly to show the thousands of visitors: ‘Look how beautiful Belém is!’ ”
Martini wants to make sure people know that these will be images of Belém—not the lived reality of its people.
He adde that there is great hope that COP30 will help bring about real transformation in defense of life, because people are being directly affected.
“Belém is a city surrounded by water with many riverside and Indigenous communities,” he said. “Our parish emerged from this very population.”
The parish has members who come from the islands of Marajó, for instance, and they are already experiencing the consequences of climate change.
“So this is a matter of survival, for striving for a more dignified life and we hope that COP30 will truly help in this,” concluded Martini. “Whether we’re very hopeful that it will? That’s another question. But there are expectations. We know it is not easy but it would be worse not to try.”
