The World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee adopted a ‘Statement on eco-justice and ecological debt’ in early September.
The statement proposes that Christians have a deep moral obligation to promote ecological justice by addressing our debts to peoples most affected by ecological destruction and to the earth itself. It addresses ecological debt and includes hard economic calculations as well as biblical, spiritual, cultural and social dimensions of indebtedness.
The statement identifies the current unprecedented ecological crises as being created by humans, caused especially by the agro-industrial-economic complex and the culture of the North, characterised by the consumerist lifestyle and the view of development as commensurate with exploitation of the earth’s so-called ‘natural resources’.
Churches are being called upon to oppose with their prophetic voices such labelling of the holy creation as mere ‘natural resources’. It points out that it is a debt owed primarily by industrialised countries in the North to countries of the South on account of historical and current resource-plundering, environmental degradation and the dumping of greenhouse gases and toxic wastes.
In its call for action the statement urges WCC member churches to intervene with their governments to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adopt a fair and binding deal at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 in order to bring the CO2 levels down to less than 350 parts per million.
It also calls upon the international community to ensure the transfer of financial resources to countries of the south to refrain from oil drilling in fragile environments. And it demands the cancellation of the illegitimate financial debts of the southern countries, especially for the poorest nations, as part of social and ecological compensation.
To read the full statement, see