NO. 0921
Adopted
(SENSE-0F-THE-ASSEMBLY)
STATEMENT ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
WHEREAS, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines climate change as follows:
"Climate change refers to a statistically significant variation in either the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period (typically decades or longer). Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. Note that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in its Article 1, defines "climate change" as: "a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods." The UNFCCC thus makes a distinction between "climate change" attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and "climate variability" attributable to natural causes."1; and
WHEREAS, as people of faith, we strive for justice and acknowledge that climate change's societal impact already falls, and will continue to fall, most heavily on the people around the world who are least able to mitigate the impacts - poor and vulnerable populations in the United States, Canada and in developing countries; and
WHEREAS, as people of faith, we heed the call to be faithful stewards and caretakers of God's creation by limiting future impacts of climate change on God's Earth; and
WHEREAS, as people of faith, we want to ensure that efforts to curb climate change prevent further environmental and societal tragedies; and
WHEREAS, in a world of finite resources, for all to have enough requires that those among us who have more than enough will need to address our patterns of acquisition and consumption; and
WHEREAS, we are called by Scripture to acknowledge our place within God's creation and our responsibility to creation:
The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it ...
Psalm 24:1
... you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.
Psalm 36:6;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana July 29, 2009 - August 2, 2009, encourages all expressions of the church to educate themselves, their communities and their locally and nationally elected officials on the consequences of climate change; and
FINALLY, BE IT RESOLVED that we Disciples begin to look at our own actions to determine if they are contributing or mitigating factors to climate change and faithfully and conscientiously to act accordingly.
St. Andrew Christian Church, Olathe, Kansas, United States
Church of the Covenant (Disciples-UCC), Lynchburg, Virginia, United States
Summerville Christian Church, Summerville, Nova Scotia, Canada
Milton Christian Church, Milton, Nova Scotia, Canada
Background
The resolution text is based on the set of principles developed by the National Council of Churches in 2008 to outline those elements we need to address if we are to mitigate the worst-case scenarios of global climate change.
The authors of the original principles refer to global warming. In this set of principles, we have opted for the more comprehensive term, climate change. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), global warming refers to "the increase in Earth's average surface temperature due to rising levels of greenhouse gases," while climate change refers to "a long -term change in the Earth's climate, or of a region on Earth" and "scientific research on climate change encompasses far more that surface temperature change."2
Statement of Principles
Justice: As people of faith, we strive for justice and acknowledge that climate change's societal impact already falls, and will continue to fall, most heavily on the people around the world who are least able to mitigate the impacts-poor and vulnerable populations in Canada, the United States, and in developing countries. As a leading industrialized nation that has disproportionately contributed to greenhouse gas emissions, it is incumbent upon us in the United States and Canada to rectify this injustice. To reach our goal of justice, we are called to:
1. Include mechanisms in governmental legislation that mitigate the impacts of climate change particularly for vulnerable populations in Canada, the United States, and abroad.
2. Prevent further harm to human health and all of God's creation by utilizing clean energy sources when addressing climate change and carbon pollution.
3. Focus on a fair and equitable distribution of total benefits and costs among people, communities, and nations, and in particular rectify the disproportionate impact that low-income communities have and will experience as the climate continues to change.
4. Enable our brothers and sisters now living in poverty to have both economic independence and stability and to eliminate the devastating impacts that climate change has and will continue to have on those people in the United States, Canada, and around the world living in poverty. (According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, climate change is a major contributor to forced displacement.)
5. Take action now to avoid placing the burden of carbon reduction unduly on our children's children.
6. Endorse policies that place a high priority on allowing all people to live in God's abundance and with dignity by ensuring that basic human needs and worker justice are not adversely impacted by the effects of climate change or future efforts to address climate change.
Stewardship: As people of faith, we heed the call to be faithful stewards and caretakers of God's creation by limiting the future impacts of climate change on God's Earth. Already, climate change has damaged the precious balance of God's creation, including increasing the number of threatened species, causing long-term drought, and melting Arctic ice. To reach our goal of stewardship, we are called to:
1. Follow recognized scientific guidelines and recommendations in order to protect all of God's creation and prevent catastrophic damage to God's Earth and God's people. Following their recommendations, our governmental legislation and our actions should include comprehensive and aggressive emission reductions that aim to limit the increase in Earth's temperature to 2 degrees Celsius or less. Legislation should focus on the short term goal of reducing U.S. and Canadian carbon emissions to reach a 15 to 20 percent reduction in carbon by 2020 with a long-term vision to achieve carbon emissions that are 80 percent of 2000 levels by the year 2050.
2. Avoid catastrophic climate change, which would devastate God's creation, make disaster and relief responses more difficult, and endanger the future of the planet. Although climate change impacts are already being felt, we must ensure that God's people and planet are protected from the catastrophic effects that may occur if we fail to significantly curb our carbon emissions.
3. Hold major emitters responsible for their actions and work to significantly reduce their carbon emissions.
Sustainability: As people of faith, we want to ensure that efforts to curb climate change prevent further environmental and societal tragedies. Sustainability requires that we prevent biological and social systems that nurture and support life from being depleted or poisoned. To reach our goal of sustainability, we are called to:
1. Maintain God's creation by creating governmental policies that sustain and restore vibrant eco-systems with economic justice so that communities of life can flourish for generations to come and abolishing those governmental policies that compromise the integrity of creation.
2. Respond to climate change in a way that reflects the interdependence of all of God's creation.
3. Support energy sources that are renewable, clean, and not destructive of God's creation.
Sufficiency: In a world of finite resources, for all to have enough requires that those among us who have more than enough will need to address our patterns of acquisition and consumption. As people of faith, we cannot achieve significant reductions in climate change emissions unless we make significant changes in our lifestyles (see the Alverna Covenant at end), particularly in energy consumption. To support the goal of sufficiency, we are called to:
1. Conserve energy in our homes, our communities, and our places of worship.
2. Conserve energy in national transportation and distribution systems and commercial enterprises.
3. Encourage governments to lead through research and example in the practice and implementation of energy conservation.
The Alverna Covenant
Whereas:
* God has created the world with finite resources;
* God has given to us the stewardship of the earth;
* God has established order through many natural cycles.
And it is evident that:
* We are consuming resources at a rate that cannot be maintained;
* We are interrupting many natural cycles;
* We are irresponsibly modifying the environment through consumption and pollution;
* We are populating the earth at a rate that cannot be maintained;
As a member of the human family and a follower of Jesus Christ, I hereby covenant that:
* I will change my lifestyle to reduce my contribution to pollution;
* I will support recycling efforts;
* I will search for sustainable lifestyles;
* I will work for public policies which lead to a just and sustainable society;
* I will share these concerns with others and urge them to make this Covenant.
The General Board recommends that the General Assembly
ADOPT Business Item No. 0921. (Debate time: 12 minutes)
1 "Climate Change." Glossary of Terms used in the IPCC Third Assessment Report. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, http://www.ipcc.ch/glossary/index.htm.