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World Council of Churches
Press Release
For Immediate Use
3 March 1997

CHURCHES LONG FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE RELATIONSHIP WITH
CREATION
WCC GENERAL SECRETARY TELLS UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

A World Council of Churches' (WCC) petition campaign on climate change
has shown *there is a widespread longing for a more responsible
relationship with creation*. That was part of the message given this
morning (Monday, 3 March) by Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, WCC General
Secretary, to the opening session of the latest UN conference on climate
change - the Sixth Session of the Ad hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate
(AGBM VI) in Bonn, Germany.

Environmental activists hope AGBM VI will propose a protocol setting
binding targets, and measures to implement them, to the states which
have signed the UN climate change convention - the  Conference of
Parties to the Climate Change Convention. Dr Raiser gave the AGBM
delegates a *message of encouragement* to that end. The recent WCC
campaign, he said, has shown that *public opinion can be mobilised in 
support of measures leading to a more efficient use of energy and to
more socially responsible lifestyles*.

The campaign called on governments:
	to fulfil their promises made at the Rio Earth Summit to stabilise
CO2 emissions by the year 2000 at 1990 levels;
	to adopt policies and binding international agreement for greater
reductions after 2000; and
	to promote more public debate on climate change issues and
increase citizens' participation in finding solutions.

Those signing the petition committed themselves to accept the
consequences of reductions for society and in their own personal lives.

23 industrialised countries took part in the campaign.  Its aim was to
promote awareness of climate change issues rather than collect the
most signatures possible. In many countries, campaign organisers made
approaches to government officials to press upon them the urgency to
act now.

Some countries ran traditional petition campaigns.  Some petitions are still
open.  Results so far include: Austria 8000 signatures, Canada 30,000,
Germany 50,000+, Liechtenstein 1015, Luxembourg 3645, and
Switzerland 65,000.

*Churches view climate change as an issue of global justice,* Dr Raiser
told the AGBM delegates. Because the consequences of climate change
*will be suffered disproportionately by peoples of low-level island states
and coastal regions* and *the poor will be most severely affected,* the
WCC considers its campaign an act of solidarity with countries of the
South, he said.

*Unless governments act now to stem the detrimental effects of climate
change,* Dr Raiser warned the UN negotiators, *we will miss a vital
opportunity to preserve and pass on to future generations a
life-sustaining environment for all the world's inhabitants.*At a special
ceremony yesterday (Sunday, 2 March), full details of the results of the
WCC Climate Change Campaign were officially presented to His
Excellency Chem Chimutengwende, President of the Conference of the
Parties to the Climate Change Convention, Ambassador Raul Estrada,
Chairman of the AGBM, and Mr Michael Z. Cutajar, Executive Secretary
of the UN Climate Change Secretariat. Other UN representatives, leaders
of national petition campaigns and representatives of international
organisations supporting the campaign attended the ceremony at the
Amos Comenius High School near Bonn.

Dr  Richard von Weizsacker, the keynote speaker, said it was
*scandalous*  that the countries which had signed the Climate Change
Convention had not yet managed to reach agreement on the necessary
reductions in greenhouse gases.

The former German president placed responsibility for *about
three-quarters of air pollution* squarely on the industrialised countries,
and said *We cannot go on pointing to the rapid rate of population growth
in the so-called developing countries, preaching family planning and birth
control, urging them to take effective action to protect their environment,
and claim that an important part of the problem has been solved.*

*Can the people struggling for survival be accused of pillaging
resources?* he asked the gathering. *Surely the avoidable damage we
do to our environment through our wastefulness is more to be criticised
than the unavoidable damage done by people living in real poverty and
hunger?*

Calling for *a gradual, moderate increase in the price of energy* in
industrialised countries  as *an incentive to make more out of less
energy*, von Weizsacker said such energy-saving measures are *an
acid test for politicians in our democracies*.

*It is asking a lot of them to sacrifice votes by introducing programmes
which... are uncomfortable for society here and now - and that just for
the glory of being proved right many years after their election defeat...*
But leadership in democracies *means making what is necessary
acceptable to a majority,* he said.

Von Weizsacker underlined the need for a global consensus for action
on the climate change challenge, and suggested that *if the United
Nations is not strong enough to take action it is not the organisation that
is at fault but its member states*.

*That is why I am grateful to the World Council of Churches for shaking
us up with its petition campaign, *ACT NOW!',* he declared.

WCC campaign results

Spain decided, instead of a mass petition,  to concentrate on getting
personalities to sign.  1700 did so and this led to a large number of press
articles and radio interviews.

Denmark has already announced its commitment to reduce CO2
emissions by 20% before the year 2005, so the campaign was
perceived as support for a decision already taken.

In Germany, instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, three modern
*wise men* brought to Munich's  traditional Christmas market the gifts of
*healthy soil', *clean water', and *pure air', and invited people to sign the
petition.

Italy made a special effort to collect signatures among parliamentarians.

Japan's campaign runs until the end of this year and results will be
presented to the prime minister and ministers of commerce and
environment.

In Holland, the cartoonist Len Munnik designed a special poster to
promote the campaign and organisers opened a special page on the
Internet.

The minister of environment in Sweden wrote an open letter to the
Christian Council of Sweden in response to the petition campaign.

Thirty scientists signed a public statement of support for the campaign in
Switzerland and debate took place in the media, at universities and
church gatherings. A special service in the capital (Berne) concluded the
campaign on 23 February.

In the UK the petition received considerable attention when the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Moderator of the Free church Federal
Council and the Chief Rabbi publicly endorsed the campaign. A letter also
appeared in The Times signed by distinguished scientists and church
leaders.

Media coverage, particularly on national public radio, was good in the
USA. The Sierra Club, a national environmental organisation, put the
petition on its Web Site.

Contact in Bonn until 7 March::

David Hallman WCC Climate Change Programme Coordinator,
c/o Gustav Stresemann Institute, Tel. +49.22.88.10.70;  Fax
+49.22.88.10.71.98  
Afterwards: Tel. +1.416.231.5931;  Fax +1.416.232.6005 or Martin
Robra,
Tel. +41.22.791.6121