Grace and peace to you all, and welcome to a new voice in this newsletter! I’m Darina Regio, the new Director of Environmental Justice at the General Board of Church and Society, where I lead the agency’s work on climate justice, sustainability, clean water, and food justice. My focus is on advocacy, coalition-building, and engagement with faith-based and secular partners to advance healthier and more resilient communities.
Before joining GBCS, I worked at the intersection of international development, governance, public policy, and security with organizations including the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), managing programs and partnerships throughout Europe, Asia, and the Pacific focused on environmental governance, sustainable development, civic engagement, institutional resilience, and geopolitical and conflict-related issues.
I bring a systems-oriented perspective to environmental justice — one that sees the relationship between environmental health, human well-being, economic resilience, peace, and strong communities as inseparable. Caring for creation is never separate from everyday life; it is foundational to public health, economic stability, and the well-being of future generations. My particular interests include oceans and marine ecosystems, plastics and zero-waste initiatives, climate-resilient communities, and protecting populations disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation and climate change.
“Environmental justice is not a single issue—it shapes the health of our communities, the resilience of our economies, and the future we leave to the next generation.”
I hold a Master of Arts in International Policy Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a bachelor’s degree in Asian and African Studies from Saint Petersburg State University. Outside of work, I enjoy traveling, exploring museums and bookstores, and spending time in nature, particularly near the ocean and in the mountains.
I’m looking forward to walking alongside this community in the shared work of caring for God’s creation — feel free to reach out anytime.
Office Hours with Darina — Friday, July 10, 12pm ET
New to the role and want to say hello? Curious about creation justice resources for your conference, want to talk through a bill you’re tracking, or simply want to connect? I’m holding open office hours on July 10 — an informal, no-agenda hour to chat, ask questions, or share what’s stirring in your context.
Register your interest here: Office Hours with Darina – July 10 Registration – Fill out form and I’ll follow up with the meeting link ahead of time.
In the meantime, here are some initial updates of creation justice related matters I have been tracking.
Bonn Climate Talks: What Happened and What It Means for COP31
The UN’s mid-year climate negotiations (SB64) ran June 8–18 in Bonn, Germany — the first major climate meeting since COP30 in Belém, and the staging ground for COP31 this November in Antalya, Türkiye. The clearest progress came on the Just Transition Mechanism, established at COP30: negotiators agreed on terms of reference for its review and advanced the framework that will guide national just transition strategies, including worker retraining and equitable distribution of climate transition costs. Parties also held the first-ever formal dialogue on climate and trade, opening space to address concerns from developing nations about carbon border measures and unequal economic impacts — the first of three such dialogues planned through 2028.
Adaptation finance was the sharpest point of conflict. Talks on the Global Goal on Adaptation stalled over disagreements about whether adaptation targets should carry binding financial commitments, and several delegations, including the Alliance of Small Island States, called the outcome unacceptable. Negotiators made no significant headway on the Mitigation Work Programme either, as long-standing divides over responsibility and ambition persisted. Bonn leaves COP31 with real momentum on just transition and trade, and unresolved, high-stakes questions on adaptation finance still on the table.
Federal Bills to Watch
Farm Bill: The House passed its version of the 2026 Farm Bill — the Farm, Food, and National Security Act (H.R. 7567) — on April 30. The Senate Agriculture Committee released its own version, the Agricultural Act of 2026, on June 23, with markup expected in July. The current extension runs out September 30. The nutrition title matters most for our work: it reauthorizes SNAP for five years, the program that anchors food security for our neighbors facing hunger and sits at the heart of food justice. The conservation title also carries weight for creation justice, shaping whether farmers and ranchers have the resources to steward the land sustainably for generations to come.
PFAS: In May, EPA proposed rolling back parts of the 2024 PFAS drinking water rule — rescinding limits for four PFAS compounds (PFHxS, PFNA, GenX, and related mixtures) and pushing the PFOA/PFOS compliance deadline to 2031. The public comment period runs through July 20, with a public hearing July 7. Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately likely to live near the industrial sites, military bases, airports, and landfills where PFAS contamination originates, and are least able to absorb the cost of home filtration if federal protections weaken — a clear reminder that clean water, a gift of creation meant for all, is too often least available to those who need it most. On the other side of the ledger, Rep. Schakowsky, Sen. Blumenthal, and Rep. DeLauro introduced the No Toxics in Food Packaging Act on June 9, which would ban PFAS and related chemicals from food packaging, offering some protection to the same communities.
Data Centers: Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence Environmental Impacts Act of 2026 (H.R. 9183) on June 9 — this time with real teeth, requiring AI data centers to report their environmental and energy impacts with fines for noncompliance, rather than the voluntary system proposed in earlier versions. The bill also directs EPA to study the environmental impacts of AI data centers and tasks the National Institute of Standards and Technology with setting measurement standards. Data centers are increasingly sited near lower-income communities with less political leverage to resist them, and the resulting strain on water and electricity lands hardest on neighbors already carrying the heaviest environmental burdens — precisely the imbalance creation justice calls us to address.
Worth Watching
International: Diplomats are meeting in Nairobi this week (June 30–July 3) for informal talks aimed at reviving the stalled UN plastics treaty negotiations, ahead of a planned formal session (INC-5.4) late this year or early next.
Domestic: A coalition of over 500 organizations — including Greenpeace, Food & Water Watch, and GreenLatinos — sent a letter to Congress this month calling for a nationwide moratorium on new AI data center construction, citing energy, water, and environmental justice concerns. It’s a growing movement worth tracking alongside the creation justice implications of the bill above.