Leaders press for action on climate
By Ed West

11 December 2009

Archbishop Nichols and Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, protest in London on Saturday PA Photos

The needs of the world’s poorest should be a priority in discussing climate change, Archbishop Vincent Nichols has said, as the world’s leaders meet in Copenhagen in a conference billed as the most important in human history.

The Archbishop of Westminster told a gathering of 3,000 people at an ecumenical service in London last Saturday that they were concerned “for all those whose lives are directly affected by climate change, the world’s poorest and the most disadvantaged”.

He said: “This is an important perspective which we must not lose in the midst of all the other concerns expressed in recent weeks.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, David Gamble, president of the Methodist Conference and Steve Clifford, director of the Evangelical Alliance joined Archbishop Nichols at the Westminster Central Hall service, The event was followed by a 50,000-strong march through London known as “The Wave”, and the largest-ever climate change march in British history, calling for governments to take action in Copenhagen.

Archbishop Nicholas also urged people to consider their own lifestyles when thinking about climate change.

“We know that issues of world poverty and development cannot be separated from concerns for the environment. They are intimately connected. Indeed, in a memorable phrase Pope Benedict XVI said: ‘The book of nature is one and indivisible’,” he said.

“This is all about how you and I live each day. That is why our religious faith is so important in tackling the problems that we face because our faith is directly concerned with how we live each day, how we put truth and belief into practice. In that daily living you and I know that there is much to do before we achieve sound and sustainable relationships between the peoples of this earth and with the environment of the created world.

“Pope Benedict XVI in his statement to the UN Climate Change Initiative in September this year made clear that since the natural environment is given by God to everyone, so our use of it “entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, particularly towards the poor and towards future generations.”

But the Archbishop said that technological advance would be a “crucial” way to find solutions.

“So today let us say, let the genius of our finest minds serve the needs of all, and the needs of our environment.”

Afterwards Archbishop Nichols and the other Christian leaders walked to Parliament, where they met with Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for energy and Climate Change, to urge action in Copenhagen.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 began on Monday and will last until next Friday. There are over 100 world leaders due to attend. The Vatican is represented by a five-person delegation headed by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations. Caritas Internationalis and Catholic International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE) are also in the Danish capital representing 180 Catholic agencies campaigning for a new deal that puts the needs of the poor first.

The Catholic groups are bringing representatives and bishops from 25 countries to Copenhagen to lobby governments of developed countries to commit to spending £131 billion on helping poor countries to adapt, and to achieving a stable level of CO2 concentrations. The main goal of the conference is to limit the rise in the earth’s temperature to two degrees above pre-Industrial Revolution levels. But some scientists say that a rise less than that would be devastating to the planet.

Lesley-Anne Knight, Caritas Internationalis Secretary General, said: “World leaders must agree to legally binding commitments to cutting greenhouse gases and to paying for the damage that climate change is having on poor communities.

“We must all live more sustainable less excessive consumerist lifestyles. This will be painful, but not as painful as doing nothing. The outcome of Copenhagen must be part of a new global ethic that reconnects us to nature otherwise it will have failed.”

On Sunday Pope Benedict XVI said protection of the environment required more restrained lifestyles and a rediscovery of the “moral dimension” of development. The Pope, speaking at his noon blessing at the Vatican, said he hoped the conference would identify policies that “respect creation and promote a cooperative development founded on the dignity of the human person and oriented toward the common good”.

“The protection of creation demands the adoption of lifestyles that are sober and responsible, especially toward the poor and future generations,” the Pope said. “In this perspective, to guarantee the full success of the conference, I invite all people of good will to respect the laws made by God regarding nature and to rediscover the moral dimension of human life,” he said.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio that solutions to the world’s problems must involve everyone.

“The Copenhagen conference on climate will be considered a success or a failure depending on the commitments assumed by governments, especially those of the biggest and most powerful countries.”