Four global church bodies have written to G20 leaders calling for them to ensure a “truly just and sustainable recovery” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sent on 13th July, the letter – which is signed by the heads of the World Council of Churches, World Communion of Reformed Churches, Lutheran World Federation and Council for World Mission who claim to represent more than 500 million Christians worldwide – notes the pandemic has not only “resulted in more than half a million deaths, massive unemployment, increase of debts, poverty, and inequality in many parts of the world”, but demonstrated “how many countries are ill-equipped and poorly resourced to respond to an emergency of this scale and magnitude”.
“It has exposed the deeper crisis which is a result of the current economic and development model, namely the exploitation of resources in a manner that destroys the planet and leaves the majority of people in poverty,” the letter reads.
It goes on to suggest that as a result there is an “unprecedented opening to collectively examine the current order and to ‘build back better’ a different system that nurtures the health, wellbeing and resilience of communities and the planet for generations to come”.
“We believe that it is feasible today to embark on essential transformation in global and national development and economic policies and practices because the majority of people do not want to go back to the ‘old normal.’”
The letter calls for upcoming meetings of G20 government leaders, finance ministers and central bank governors to consider cancelling the debts of low and middle income nations to allow them to respond to the pandemic as well as implementing global tax reforms which would include a new progressive wealth tax, financial transaction tax and carbon tax at national and global levels to fund recovery efforts.
The letter also calls for G20 leaders to allocate “adequate financial resources” to ensure people have access to widespread COVID-19 testing and universal healthcare coverage as well as the search for a vaccine and asks for them to “[s]afeguard public goods and the ecological commons” as well as guarantee living wages for all people and prioritise health, education, water and sanitation, agro-ecology, and renewable energy in COVID-19 recovery and longer-term plans.
Signatories to the letter include Rev Prof Dr Ioan Sauca, interim general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev Dr Chris Ferguson, general secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Rev Dr Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, and Rev Dr Collin Cowan, general secretary of the Council for World Mission.
