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AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS JOIN CALLS FOR HIGHER EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS TARGETS

28th May, 2015

Australian Christian leaders have joined with leaders from other faiths in calling for more ambitious post 2020 emissions reductions targets ahead of discussions in both major political parties on the issue.

In a letter to Coalition and Labor Party parliamentary members, the leaders – who include Archbishop Philip Freier, primate of the Anglican Church in Australia, and Professor Andrew Dutney, president of the Uniting Church of Australia’s national assembly, have called for an emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2025 and 80 per cent below those levels by 2030 – figures which are significantly higher than the current bipartisan target of five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.

Thea Ormerod, president of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change – which has coordinated the letter campaign, said the current target "fails to live up to our responsibility as a nation". "It is fundamentally immoral," she said. "It is shameful for a relatively wealthy country to be putting forward targets below the offerings of other nations with comparable economies."

Jacqui Remond, director of Catholic Earthcare Australia and one of the signatories to the letter, challenged major political parties to "have the courage to act for our common home".

"If we don’t rapidly shift from fossil fuel energy sources to clean energy, we’ll be part of perpetuating a problem which is already creating massive hardship for the world’s poor and future generations."

Among other signatories to the letter are Kim Hollow, president of the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils, Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, senior rabbi at the Emanuel Synagogue and Professor Nihal Agar, chairman of the Hindu Council of Australia.

The Australian Government is expected to submit Australia’s targets to the UN in the middle of the year while Labor is set to decide its policies on the matter at the ALP national conference in July.

~ www.arrcc.org.au

– DAVID ADAMS

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