Geelong, Australia
Some 100 religious and First Nations leaders from Australia and across the South Pacific have signed an open letter urging Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to stop all new and current gas projects and end public subsidies for the fossil fuel sector.
The letter also asks that Australia fully respects First Nations peoples’ rights to protect country, re-starts contributions to the United Nations Green Climate Fund and actively participate in creating a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, something which has already been endorsed by the Vatican.
One of the many multi-faith services taking place around Australia on Thursday, 13th October, this one at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Parramatta, Sydney. PICTURE: Michael O’Farrell.
“The current level of warming is not safe,” the letter reads. “This moment in history calls for an urgent, courageous, visionary response, especially from those in power. Australia’s leadership in this response, as part of its First Nations Foreign Policy, is vital for the vulnerable communities and ecosystems who depend on it.”
The letter’s signatories include church leaders such as Archbishop Geoffrey Smith, Anglican Primate of Australia, Archbishop, Philip Richardson, Anglican Primate of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, and Rev James Bhagwan, general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches as well as Cardinal Sir John Ribat, Catholic Archbishop of Port Moresby, and, Rev Fr Soane Fotutata, general secretary of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific.
Other faith leaders who have signed the letter include Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed, the Grand Mufti of Australia, Prakash Mehta, president of the Hindu Council of Australia, Dr Gawaine Powell Davies, president of the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils, and Rabbi Nicole Roberts, chair of the Assembly of Rabbis and Cantors of Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
The letter was released as a series of multi-faith services were held in cities across Australlia including at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, St Patrick’s Cathedral in Parramatta, Sydney, and St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane.
Rev John Gilmore, president of the National Council of Churches in Australia and another signatory to the letter, in a statement that taken more action to address cliamte change was about “putting loving our neighbours into practice”.
“The government needs to listen to our neighbours in the Pacific. This letter echoes what Pacific leaders said earlier this year at the Pacific Islands Forum: Australia needs to rule out new coal and gas and to stop subsidising those industries.”
The letter and services were organised by the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change as part of the global faith campaign, “Faiths 4 Climate Justice”. The campaign is taking place in more than 40 countries during the lead-up to COP27 which is to be held in Egypt in in early November.
