Climate Change

Climate justice is one of the key ethical and moral challenges for our time. As people of faith, the United Church believes that we can't apply a quick technological fix to climate change, but instead need to change how we live our lives on this fragile planet. The Earth can't be seen only as a source of resource extraction and wealth generation, but as a community in which we live and move and have our being. We must work to repair the world—making a new global covenant—through personal life changes, spiritual renewal, and political action. This action needs to happen at all levels, with changes in all institutions and economies.

What's Happening?

The emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are pushing the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere higher than at any time in recorded history. Scientists with the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that human societies, especially in developed nations, need to reduce their annual emissions of carbon dioxide by at least 90 percent so that climate systems won't be drastically changed.

The Kyoto Protocol, which was negotiated in 1997, commits Canada to reduce greenhouse gases by six percent from 1990 levels by 2012. While Canada has ratified this protocol, we will not meet our commitment: instead we will have increased our harmful emissions substantially. The Copenhagen Accord, signed in 2009, is not a binding agreement, and so far there is no negotiated agreement beyond 2012.

The Kyoto Protocol’s targets are very modest, and we will need to make much deeper cuts to our emissions if we are to avert catastrophic damage to the Earth’s ecosystems. This means that we will need to make radical changes to our lifestyles as well as the way we generate, use, and conserve energy so our communities and economies will be sustainable.

Failure to act will have serious implications for us and for future generations. Climate change will almost certainly lead to food and water shortages, more frequent and severe weather disasters, the destruction of species and ecosystems, and a rise in sea levels. These problems are likely to affect the impoverished most severely, even though most emissions are produced by those living in relative wealth.

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Who’s Responsible?

There is a need to look at who is most responsible for the problem. Human-induced climate change is a result of industrialized countries releasing a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gases and toxic waste into the atmosphere we all share. (Please see the report “Canada’s Fair Share in a Climate Constrained World” on the Climate Action Network Canada site.)

This is creating an ecological debt to less-developed countries, the most vulnerable, all other forms of life on the planet, and to the future. (For more, see the World Council of Churches site.) The countries with the largest "footprint" (negative impact) among the nations must now take on this responsibility and pay their climate debt.

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United Church Work on Climate Change

The United Church began work on climate change issues in 1988.

In 1992, the 34th General Council adopted the policy statement One Earth Community, which affirms 12 key ethical principles that guide the church’s work on ecological issues. These principles include economic justice, human responsibility, sustainable lifestyles, the protection of biodiversity, and ensuring the rights for future generations.

In 2000, General Council adopted Energy in the One Earth Community, which calls us to move beyond dependence on fossil fuels and other technologies that produce emissions leading to climate change.

In 2009, General Council adopted “The United Church of Canada and Global Warming—The Unavoidable Challenge,” which was taken as a priority in The Moderator's Plan for Participating in God's Abundant Healing of Creation (2009) [PDF: 4 pp/45 KB].

Current church work—much done ecumenically through KAIROS and the World Council of Churches—includes advocacy on implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, energy conservation and retrofits for church buildings, and linking to global efforts of solidarity with those already being affected by climate change.

For more information, contact:

• Joy Kennedy
  Program Coordinator, Poverty, Wealth, and Ecological Justice
  Tel: 416-231-7680 ext. 4069
  Toll-free: 1-800-268-3781 ext. 4069
  E-mail: Joy Kennedy