The Micah Network, a group of over 330 Christian relief, development and justice organisations from 81 countries, has prepared a statement addressed to world leaders ahead of the UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
It invites church leaders, CEOs and directors of NGOs and para-church groups to sign onto the following statement, which was prepared at its Global Consultation on Creation Stewardship and Climate Change event held in Kenya in July. –
As over 152 Christian leaders and development professionals from 38 countries, in both the South and the North, we call on world leaders from all countries to take decisive action to secure an ambitious and fair climate deal in Copenhagen this year.
Although climate change is affecting us all, it is having the hardest impact in the most vulnerable communities around the world, who have done the least to cause it. It is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and affects 300 million people, mainly in the developing world.
We see the impacts of this in extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, storms and unpredictable rainfall within the communities we work with and the effects this is having on food security, access to water, livelihoods and biodiversity. All the indicators point to increasing frequency and severity of these events and their impacts.
We cannot ignore their plight – our God calls us to speak out.
We call on leaders to work for a strong climate deal that will keep global temperature increase as far below two degrees as possible – the threshold over which climate change impacts will become overwhelming, and reduce emissions by at least 80% (on 1990 levels) by 2050.
We especially call on developed countries to agree to cut their emissions by at least 40% (on 1990 levels) by 2020 and to urgently commit to providing at least $150 billion a year of additional funding to help developing countries adapt, reduce their emissions, protect their forests and develop sustainably.
As Christian leaders we believe there is a moral, spiritual and economic imperative to tackle climate change. We accept that we must all take responsibility but call on you to show leadership to ensure an agreement is reached which can sustain the earth for many generations to come.
This will be the true test of global leadership. We invite you to turn the tide towards justice and equity and we commit to pray for you.
Church leaders, CEOs and directors of NGOs and para-church groups can sign onto the above statement on behalf of their organisations by sending their name, position, organisation and country to
[email protected] before 15 September 2009.