Climate change concern as crucial meeting looms
Tackling climate change has been firmly in the spotlight in recent days as the countdown to December’s meeting in Paris continues
At the end of the year almost 200 countries will gather in the French capital to attempt to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate change. In the run up people have been making their concerns heard.
Last Wednesday (17 June) thousands gathered in Westminster for the first mass lobby of this Parliament, and called on their elected leaders to tackle climate change. The lobby was organised by the Climate Coalition, which encouraged people to speak up for what they loved that may be affected by climate change. Around 9000 people from all over the UK spoke to more than 330 MPs.
Click here for a picture gallery from the day.
Many from Baptist churches were among them. Dr David Golding CBE, an Honorary Chaplain at Newcastle University and member of Whitley Bay Baptist Church, helped to organise a delegation from the North East. He said he was received "courteously" by local MP Alan Campbell, Deputy Opposition Chief Whip, presenting both a briefing by the Climate Coalition, and a petition bearing the names of 120 ‘Members and Friends of Whitley Bay Baptist Church'.
He said, ‘My overall impressions is the great majority of our elected leaders are people of sincerity and good will.
‘Many of our elected leaders assure us they’ll do what they can to curb climate change; far too few commit themselves to doing what needs to be done! They live in a world where compromise is, necessarily, the name of the game.
‘However, as I never tire of telling them, you can’t negotiate or compromise with the Laws of Physics - these laws are inexorable and they make no allowances for good intentions! Indeed, unless we meet their requirements, they will sweep us and all we love away.’
A delegation from Yorkshire was also present, including the Revd Dr Keith Jones of Shipley Baptist Church, Bradford.
He said, ‘It was great to be part of the Climate Coalition peaceful lobby of Parliament with 9,000 others from many different Christian traditions. It was encouraging to listen to several committed Members of Parliament explaining what they were doing to press the UK Government to take a positive stance at the Paris Climate Conference later in the year and to know that about 330 MPs were lobbied by their constituents.’
Environment and climate change problems are the main issues facing the world over the next ten years, according to ComRes polling commissioned by international development charity Tearfund ahead of the lobby.
Asked unprompted to identify the main social and political issues they believe the world will have to face over the next ten years, practising Christians in the UK are most likely to say climate change or the environment (28 per cent).
‘We’re in churches every Sunday and at lots of times throughout the week, meeting with our supporters, and we know they’re passionate about the environment and see it as a justice issue,’ said Paul Cook, Tearfund’s Advocacy Director.
There was also widespread Christian backing for the Pope’s encyclical on the environment and climate change.
Christian Aid called the encyclical "game-changing", and praised Pope Francis for his call for “a radical rethinking of humanity’s relationship with the earth”. It urged both people of faith in all walks of life "and especially politicians" to heed his appeal for action to address climate change.
Christian Aid’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Christine Allen, said the intervention was a natural extension for his ministry for those in poverty.
‘The hallmark of Pope Francis’ ministry has been his care for the poor,' she explained. 'You can’t claim to care for the poor and ignore climate change. Climate change is not just a scientific phenomenon, or a political football, it is a moral issue which demands an ethical response.’
Elsewhere Nicky Bull, chair of ecumenical Christian charity Operation Noah and Baptist church member, said, ‘The climate crisis offers us a unique opportunity to change the way we do things on a global scale - to create a fairer, safer and more sustainable world for all.
‘We hope that the Pope’s moral guidance will catalyse the faith community around the world to speak out and take urgent, radical action on one of the most pressing social justice issues of our time. His call for a “new and universal solidarity” to work together as one human family cannot come at a more important moment for the protection of the Earth, its creatures and future generations to come.’
Baptist Times, 24/06/2015