Faith communities and the UN Climate Action Summit 2019
By Christiana Figueres, via Church Times
When the global interfaith community worked in unison with businesses, investors, cities and states, and civil-society organisations across all geographical boundaries in the run-up to the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015, it helped to form the foundation on which we were able to build political will for a global agreement that put us on course to a future free of fossil fuel.
We knew then that the ambition put on the table by governments would represent their first best effort; so we ensured that built into the agreement was a ratchet mechanism that would provide space for the bigger efforts to come. It was agreed that every five years governments would come back to the table with more. I like to call this five-yearly cycle “the Paris heartbeat”, because it is fundamental to ensuring that we collectively deliver the long-term goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below 2ºC, while striving for 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels.
It has been extremely encouraging to see that, since Paris, the faith community has been continually stepping up its own action efforts in this space — and, in particular, its leadership in the movement to disinvest from fossil fuels.
I was fortunate enough to participate in the moving official opening of the Global Climate Action Summit at Grace Cathedral, in San Francisco, last fall, where leaders and congregations from the different main faith groups, and more, were represented.
During the ceremony, we heard how Islamic centres in the United States and in the UK has made a commitment to source 100-per-cent of their energy from renewables. We heard from Buddhist foundations that said that 100 per cent of their centres will be vegetarian by 2020, reaching about three million people and, as a result, massively reducing their carbon footprint. We heard how Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka are shifting their source of energy to 100-per-cent solar, with similar commitments coming from the Hindu tradition.
The World Evangelical Alliance made a commitment to have at least 20 per cent of its global electricity footprint powered by 100 per cent clean renewable energy within five years.
The Episcopal Church in the United States stated that its entire institutional structure would meet the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Indigenous communities were also represented at the ceremony. Those from Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo said that they would work together with religious leaders and communities, interfaith organisations, and the United Nations Environmental Programme to launch the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative: an effort to train and mobilise religious communities to work alongside indigenous leaders to protect tropical forests and their indigenous guardians.
During the recent Season of Creation, 19 Roman Catholic institutions disinvested from fossil fuels, bringing the total number to more than 120.
These are all strong signals of the faith community’s dedication to supporting and caring for the world’s most vulnerable, and to the overarching and unifying mission of peace. As we head towards the first big Paris heartbeat in 2020, when governments must come back with bigger, bolder commitments, the faith community again has a critical part to play in bringing stakeholders together to support governments.
UN Climate Action Summit 2019
Via Climate Action Summit 2019
The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow. But there is a growing recognition that affordable, scalable solutions are available now that will enable us all to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies.
The latest analysis shows that if we act now, we can reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C and even, as asked by the latest science, to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Thankfully, we have the Paris Agreement – a visionary, viable, forward-looking policy framework that sets out exactly what needs to be done to stop climate disruption and reverse its impact. But the agreement itself is meaningless without ambitious action.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is calling on all leaders to come to New York on 23 September with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050.
I want to hear about how we are going to stop the increase in emissions by 2020, and dramatically reduce emissions to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century
To be effective and credible, these plans cannot address mitigation alone: they must show the way toward a full transformation of economies in line with sustainable development goals. They should not create winners and losers or add to economic inequality; they must be fair and create new opportunities and protections for those negatively impacted, in the context of a just transition. And they should also include women as key decision-makers: only gender-diverse decision-making has the capacity to tackle the different needs that will emerge in this coming period of critical transformation.
The Summit will bring together governments, the private sector, civil society, local authorities and other international organizations to develop ambitious solutions in six areas: a global transition to renewable energy; sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; sustainable agriculture and management of forests and oceans; resilience and adaptation to climate impacts; and alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy.
Business is on our side. Accelerated climate solutions can strengthen our economies and create jobs, while bringing cleaner air, preserving natural habitats and biodiversity, and protecting our environment.
New technologies and engineering solutions are already delivering energy at a lower cost than the fossil-fuel driven economy. Solar and onshore wind are now the cheapest sources of new bulk power in virtually all major economies. But we must set radical change in motion.
This means ending subsidies for fossil fuels and high-emitting agriculture and shifting towards renewable energy, electric vehicles and climate-smart practices. It means carbon pricing that reflects the true cost of emissions, from climate risk to the health hazards of air pollution. And it means accelerating the closure of coal plants and halting the construction of new ones and replacing jobs with healthier alternatives so that the transformation is just, inclusive and profitable.
I have submitted comments already… are you not posting it for public access?
Since you are not willing to publish my previous lengthy comments, I will submit a few shorter remarks…
The faith communities will always be preyed upon by modern financial globalists when they seek to develop, if not new partners in crime, at least some useful idiots, through an appeal to conscience (with its implicit shame if one doesn’t see the light). Church leaders such as Pope Francis (in one encyclical) have also added their messages into a charged mix of increasing hyperbole and confusion.
One must free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy — it has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore. Let readers of this do their own research into the work and statements of Patrick Moore, one of the co-founders of the Greenpeace movement, which has since been taken over by globalist ideologues. He is exposing the lies and deception around many climate change agendas… while others like Michael Shellenberger are offering sound proposals to world energy, such as the nuclear option, which is supported by new research efforts funded by people like Bill Gates… it’s clean, safe and economical! Begin to think for yourselves people. Progressive agendas are usually opportunistic rather than humanitarian.