Christians leaders representing Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox denominations from across the globe have joined with the leaders of other faiths in calling for governments to take action to address climate change and the impact it is having on the world’s poor.
Meeting in New York this week in a specially convened summit ahead of the UN Climate Summit which kicks off there today, 30 faith leaders representing nine different religions signed a document in which they called for world political and economic leaders to “exercise their leadership” in taking action to address climate change – including introducing short-term emission cuts, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and introducing greater forest protection and increased energy efficiency in construction and transportation.
In the document – released on 21st September at the end of an interfaith conference jointly hosted by the World Council of Churches and Religions for Peace – they also called for all governments to develop strategies to “better manage residual loss and damage due to adverse climate impacts”.
They said they were “ultimately” requesting all states to work towards a global climate agreement – to be signed at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 – which would be “ambitious enough to keep temperature from rising well below two degrees Celsius”, “fair enough to distribute the burden in an equitable way”, and “legally binding enough to guarantee that effective national climate policies to curb emissions are well-funded and fully implemented”.
Elsewhere in the statement, the signatories said they acknowledged the “overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is human-induced” and that without intervention, its impacts will continue to grow in intensity and frequency.
“We recognise that these effects disproportionately affect the lives, livelihoods and rights of poorer, marginalised and therefore most vulnerable populations, including indigenous peoples…” they wrote. “We recognise that climate change stands today as a major obstacle to the eradication of poverty. Severe weather events exacerbate hunger, cause economic insecurity, force displacement and prevent sustainable development. The climate change crisis is about the survival of humanity on planet Earth, and action most reflect those facts with urgency.”
Among the signatories – who hailed from 21 countries on six continents – were Father Michael Czerny, of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Eun-Haw Kwon, vice president of the Lutheran World Federation, Dr Agnes Aboum, moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, Rev Jim Wallis, of Christian group Sojourners in the US, as well as representatives of faiths including Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam among others.
~ http://interfaithclimate.org
