JPIC conference at High Leigh

What will it take for individuals, governments, transnationals and the fossil-fuel extractors to wake up to the climate crisis in our world? Will we have to wait for searing temperatures of 45 - 50 degrees centigrade? What about the effects of colonisation of 'developing' countries where mining of resources is extracted for the benefit of the wealth of 'developed' countries? Is it not time for climate reparation from the rich world to the poor? Surely, it's time to 'make polluters pay?'

These challenging questions were posed by Dr Dorothy Guerrero, Head of Policy and Advocacy at 'Global Justice Now' to the JPIC (Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation) group (pictured) gathered in High Leigh conference centre over the weekend.

Questions and challenges are a stark reminder of the climate crisis our world is facing since the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, 1972. The first Annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) was held in Berlin in 1995 and since then there has been one every year in November/December.

There was much enthusiasm when at the Paris COP in 2015, a new international treaty was agreed with new commitments up to 2020. One such agreement was to limit global warming to 1.5degrees and to ensure that all countries 'developed' and 'developing' would have legally binding obligations. That same year, Pope Francis published his Encyclical, 'Laudato Si' (Care for our Common Home) drawing on the wisdom and expertise of scientists, educationalists, theologians, political analysts and NGOs working with grass-roots in some of the poorest and most challenging environments of the world. Francis says that the warming of the planet is a symptom of a greater problem: the developed world's indifference to the destruction of the planet in pursuit of short-term economic gains, often resulting in a 'throwaway culture." Francis states that concern for the natural world is no longer 'optional' but is an integral part of Church teaching on social justice. Our JPIC group could not agree more! We too are driven by our concern for planet Earth.

Remember COP26 in Glasgow when pledges were made? What was promised?

At Glasgow, 103 countries signed up to the Global Methane Pledge to collectively reduce methane emissions 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential 86 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. In addition, all nations were requested to revise their national climate goals and measures by the end of 2022. The goal to keep global warming significantly below two degrees will continue to be pursued and global greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 45 per cent by 2030. However, COP26 fell well short of delivering the national commitments that together would limit warming globally to 1.5C.

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) finds that there is a more than 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) between 2021 and 2040. This is a worrying trend. One might be tempted to ask if these conferences are merely 'talking shops?'

It was evident as the weekend progressed that what is required is a system change and not just a climate change! Most certainly a very big challenge that goes beyond individual efforts. We can agree that the current global system exacerbates much of the inequalities and injustices at the root of our present economic, political, social and environmental systems. Faith-based communities and institutions are increasingly stepping in to highlight and even counterbalance these inequalities and injustices. In many cases, members of faith organisations become environmental influencers, championing nature-based solutions that experts say are crucial to saving the ecosystems that underpin human society. A recent UN report on environment states that 'Faith-based organisations can help drive sustainable development.'

At JPIC, we are aware of the urgency of doubling our efforts to promote climate reparation and in particular to 'make polluters pay' to pressurise the 'BIG 5' - the world's most influential and profitable companies -ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell to act as responsible stakeholders! In recent years, their collective profits have gone to a record level - distributing over $100billiion to wealthy shareholders. For the past 150-200 years, countries that are now rich have built their wealth and power in the global economy on the basis of using fossil fuels as the main source of energy. Don't these companies owe a 'climate debt' for over-using and diminishing Earth's capacity to absorb greenhouse gases as they pursued industrial development?

Our goal in JPIC is the pursuit of justice, peace, and integrity of creation that permeates all aspects of our lives, in solidarity with the most vulnerable in our world. We are indebted to Dr Dorothy Guerrero for challenging us to step up our efforts in the care for our common home; to 'speak truth to power' as we build a collective voice, join in solidarity with movements to challenge corporate and political elites, in the quest for climate justice.

As Pope Francis says: "The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home." (LS13)

We ended our weekend conference around the Eucharistic table, officiated by Rev Ray Collier, Columban priest, who spent many years in the Philippians and knew first- hand the terrible effects of climate crisis on the poorest communities. He encouraged us to 'keep hope alive so that little by little we bring truth where there is deceit and lies, justice where there is injustice and cruelty, to the weakest and bring compassion where there is indifference and passivity."

LINK

Global Justice: www.globaljustice.org.uk