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Clinton and Company at UN Conference on
Climate Change |
Members of the global faith community gathered in Montreal, Canada for the United Nations Conference on Climate
Change. We came as Jews, Buddhists and Christians from every part of the world. We came to bear witness to the impact of climate change on God’s creation and on communities all over the planet.
We believe that human-created climate change is now taking place throughout the world. The evidence from scientists and Indigenous peoples alike can no longer be denied. We heard from witnesses in communities from the Arctic to the Pacific Islands, who described the effects of melting ice, rising water, unstable weather patterns and severe weather. These communities do not have the luxury of denying climate change, or of pretending that climate change will be in any way beneficial.
We heard health experts describe how climate change is already opening new ground for infectious diseases and malarial mosquitoes. We heard about species of plants and animal under immediate threat, and about looming water global shortages as glaciers melt and snow packs dry up. We heard that climate change will mean drought for more farmers, and land lost to rising water along every coastline on the planet. We heard about the particular impact of climate change on women and on poor communities who are now forced to put already scarce resources into adapting to the effects of climate change. We heard from Inuit in the Arctic, whose culture has survived millennia, but may not be able to withstand the impact of pollution created thousands of miles away.
This is not a doomsday vision. It is real—but the harm can be reduced even though time is quickly running out. We believe that action to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change is needed right now. The world’s wealthiest countries are responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions (even though the impact will be felt most badly by poor countries and Indigenous peoples), and as such bear the greatest share of responsibility for cutting back their energy use. This may be a truth that people living in wealthy countries will not want to hear.
The Kyoto Protocol, which came into law in 2005, is a key, if limited, first step. This was the first United Nations gathering since Kyoto was ratified, and was a crucial next step. Faith communities around the world, including the World Council of Churches, have spent years lobbying for the creation of this Protocol, and now we are committed to making it work. At the meeting in Montreal, measures to put the Protocol into operation (called the Marrakech Accords) were agreed upon, and negotiations on emissions targets after 2012 began. These are small but very important steps. However, the real work rests with our communities, and with governments at all levels.
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Youth Event at COP |
In particular, we urge people living in North America and Europe to take greater action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Reduction begins with choices in our own lives and in our places of communal worship, and many faith communities have taken these first steps to reduce humanity’s footprint on the Earth. But our action must quickly spread to our communities and to our governments, and to the laws of our regions and countries. We call on faith communities to build alliances of dialogue and action in every part of our communities, and to be bold in holding governments accountable.
We believe that ultimately voluntary measures will not be enough to achieve even the minimal changes required by the Kyoto Protocol targets. Addressing climate change is thus a political decision as well as a personal one, and this will demand changes to laws, rather than voluntary efforts alone. Our carbon-based economies and our enormous and unsustainable use of energy will have to change. This will not be easy, and it must begin now.
We see that Canada has fallen far behind its Kyoto targets, and this is a cause of great concern. The problem here lies not with Kyoto, but with a failure to take decisive action focused on real emissions reductions. We call on Canadians to hold themselves and their government accountable.
We also note that the Bush administration in the United States does not speak for the American people when it continues to refuse to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol. People from every faith community and walk of life in the US have already begun to make their own changes, and local and state governments are joining in. Their efforts are an example to the rest of us. So are the efforts of people living in the global South, as they explore non-carbon based energies and greater energy efficiency. We will continue to support one another in our efforts, recognizing that climate change is both local and global.
Finally, we want to note that even in the midst of such difficult stories and scientific consensus, we were inspired by the leadership offered by youth throughout the Conference. Youth are clearly the leaders of today as well as tomorrow. Youth and children will be the true witnesses to the full impact of climate change, and they are taking the issue far more seriously than many adults. We must listen to them.
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COP Climate Change March Banner |
God’s good creation is strong and resilient, but we have inflicted enormous damage on it. We understand climate change to be the cry of the Earth. We call on all people to hear that cry and to echo it. We call on faith and spiritual communities to take seriously our ancient prophetic traditions of speaking truth to power, and to engage our governments, our societies and ourselves to take immediate action. We invite all people to sign the Spiritual Declaration prepared for an interfaith gathering of 1500 in Montreal, and to then take its invitation to action.
This is God’s sacred and wonderful creation, and we will
learn to live with respect in it.
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