Climate Justice Fellowship: A Letter to the Lambeth Conference

YCCN outside Lambeth Conference on 3 August, Credit: YCCN

Source: Young Christian Climate Network

As Christians, we are called to express the restoring justice of God. We are to 'learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression' (Is. 1:17). Seeking justice means working in solidarity with those who are suffering the worst effects of the climate emergency, one of the biggest crises of our time. The Anglican Communion's efforts to address the climate crisis cannot be separated from God's call for Christians to live justly.

People across the globe - particularly in the majority world - have been living through the destructive consequences of the climate emergency for decades. Many of the worst-affected countries are simultaneously dealing with poverty, conflict, and the hangovers of colonial violence, and are being pushed further into debt as the heavy toll of the climate crisis falls upon them. As a global Christian community, we need to collaborate and support each other in fellowship: a fellowship of faith and a fellowship of climate justice. We ask the Anglican Communion urgently to prioritise collaborative climate justice.

The 2022 IPCC (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability concluded that breaching 1.5°C of warming 'would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans'. These impacts will be far from equally felt, with 'vulnerability higher in locations with poverty, governance challenges and limited access to basic services and resources, violent conflict and high levels of climate-sensitive livelihoods'.

However, the IPCC also concluded that we are not powerless: we can substantially limit human-caused climate change by taking the recommended pathway to net zero, which includes significant decarbonisation by 2030. As part of that pathway, the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that 'there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply'. Despite this, just eight companies are planning over 200 oil and gas expansion projects between 2022 and 2025 - this includes ExxonMobil, who were found to be grossly insufficient on all ten minimum assessment criteria for alignment with 1.5°C warming, and from whom the Church Commissioners of the Church of England recently refused to divest.

We want to see tangible action from the Church in the immediate future, and we join our voices with those of you at the Conference who are calling for justice. We ask the Church to:

• Work creatively to enable the churches of wealthier nations to show fellowship with the climate-vulnerable, increasing resource-sharing and fundraising for churches and communities suffering the worst effects, and strengthening ties between link dioceses to build in meaningful and consistent financial support for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage.
• Sever all remaining financial ties with fossil fuel companies, in recognition of the urgency of the climate crisis, and in solidarity with those who have not only suffered for decades from climate change but who have also had their communities impacted by the exploitative model of fossil fuel extraction.
• Empower young people - particularly young people in climate-vulnerable nations - to lead on climate policy, creating new paid roles, listening to the voices of those most affected, and nurturing new ideas.
• Speak out on the climate emergency, actively encouraging and supporting all member churches across the world to make changes for sustainability, and engaging in the political arena to demand climate justice.

The Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) is an ecumenical UK group, including many Anglicans but also many from other denominations. This is from all of us: as united young Christians we acknowledge that the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Communion have substantial power to change the face of Christian climate justice action. We are pleased to have the support of many other Christian organisations, some of whom are listed below.

We thank all of you at the Lambeth Conference for the work you have already done towards climate justice. We ask that this year you magnify your efforts. During the conference, we will be praying for you and for climate justice fellowship. We ask you to pray with us, and to let the inspiration of that prayer carry you into action.

Supporter Signatories:

Green Christian

Operation Noah

Student Christian Movement

Tearfund

Young Christian Climate Network www.yccn.uk/