25th June, 2015
The Lutheran World Federation has announced that it will be its policy not to invest in fossil fuels and has called on member churches to do the same.
Making the announcement as part of its "long-standing commitment to climate justice", the LWF Council said that it called on member churches “not to invest in fossil fuels and to support energy efficiency and renewable energy companies, and to encourage their institutions and individual members to do likewise.”
It said that through the decision it aimed to "seek coherence and wish to send a strong moral signal that the world needs to operate a transformational change towards a low-carbon economy, phasing out fossil fuels and phasing in renewable energies by the middle of this century".
Acknowledging that some member churches, as well as the World Council of Churches, have preceded them in the decision, the LWF said they are joining a "broad global movement which is backed by the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)".
“As a Lutheran Communion, we understand climate change as an issue of justice, peace, care for creation and protection for all peoples everywhere," the council said. "We raise a special concern for the most vulnerable, in particular the poor, the indigenous people, and the voiceless.”
Rev Martin Junge, the general secretary of the LWF, said he was encouraged by the decision which he said "puts action behind our commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050".
"We are encouraged that the council has made the decision not to invest in fossil fuels and this puts action behind our commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050," he said.
– DAVID ADAMS
