wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Bells ring a wake-up call for climate justice

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 14/12/2009 10:49:06

>BELLS RING A WAKE-UP CALL FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

As a wave of ringing bells embraced the globe, churches sent a
strong message to world leaders gathered at the UN climate summit
in Copenhagen: There is only one world and in order to preserve
it, bold action needs to be taken now. 

"We have only one world, this world, if we destroy it, we have
nothing else", said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking at a press
conference after an ecumenical celebration for climate justice in
the Copenhagen Cathedral on 13 December. 

Tutu summarized the churches’ message to negotiators and
politicians attending the UN summit: "For the sake of your
children, of your grandchildren, care for this one world we have
[…] Let us have a legally enforceable deal, not a political
deal."

Such an agreement would entail developed nations committing to
reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40 percent by 2020
and by 80 percent by 2050 in regard to their 1990 emission
levels. They should also contribute 150 billion US dollars per
year to assist developing nations to reduce their own CO2
emissions and adapt to the consequences of climate change. 

The ecumenical celebration, attended by Queen Margrethe II of
Denmark, members of the Danish government, participants at the UN
climate change summit and a plethora of religious leaders, was
hosted by the National Council of Churches in Denmark in
collaboration with DanChurchAid and the World Council of Churches
(WCC). 

In his sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams spoke
about fear as the root of excuses to avoid the difficult and
costly decisions that the climate change crisis requires –
"decisions that will mean real change".

"We meet as people of faith in the context of this critical
moment in human history [to say] do not be afraid", Williams
said. As "love casts out fear", it also helps to take "the right
decisions for our global future". 

In order to ensure that the earth is a safe home for future
generations, some questions need to be asked today, said
Williams. Amongst them: "What would be a healthy and sustainable
relationship with this world?" and "How shall we build
international institutions that make sure the resources get where
they are needed?"

>Bells ring a wake-up call 

At the end of the celebration, the Dean of the Cathedral Anders
Gadegaard introduced the ringing of the bells. At that time, 3
p.m., throughout Denmark, Scandinavia and Central Europe,
thousands of church bells rang 350 times to symbolize the 350
parts per million that, according to many scientists, is the safe
upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere. 

Around the world ( http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7426 )churches
joined in a global chain of prayers and bell-ringing for climate
justice. Starting in Fiji, in the South Pacific, it sounded
throughout the world's time zones to Copenhagen, on to Greenland,
right around the earth and back to the Pacific. 

Church leaders from the Pacific and Greenland spoke at the press
conference in Copenhagen about the consequences climate change is
already having in their regions. 

The Bishop of Greenland Sofie Petersen, from the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Denmark, spoke of the impact of climate change
on the lives of fishermen and hunters. "Because of the lack of
ice on the sea, hunters cannot go hunting like in the earlier
days and because of that people cannot get their food", she said.

The president of the Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu,
Rev. Tofiga Falani, explained that in his country, a Polynesian
island nation made up of eight coral atolls, there is no place
higher than four feet (1.2 metres) above sea level. He pleaded to
rich countries to be heedful of the consequences of their
development for thousands of people living on those low-lying
atolls. "We want to survive!" Falani said. 

>Half a million people for climate justice

Earlier in the day, Desmond Tutu handed over to Yvo de Boer,
executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change, a clock representing over half a million signatures for
climate justice. 

Climate change effects are being felt most "by those who did not
cause it, the poor and the vulnerable", Tutu said, speaking
before a crowd at Copenhagen's City Hall Square. This is the
"injustice of climate change", that poor countries are the ones
"that have to pay for something they didn’t cause". 

The signatures were collected in more than 20 countries by the
Countdown to Copenhagen campaign, a coalition of ecumenical
development and humanitarian aid organizations. 

The 512,894 signatories committed to reducing their personal
contribution to CO2 emissions through recycling, reusing and
reducing consumption, and to press political leaders for a
climate change agreement that is fair to poor countries.

In receiving the campaign’s clock, Yvo de Boer said that in
spite of world leaders’ concerns about financial, economic and
industrial crises, "it is a moral crisis that is standing in the
way of us addressing an environmental crisis". 

"Let your voices be heard", concluded de Boer, "because
Copenhagen is the one chance we have to get this right". 

Media contact in Copenhagen: Juan Michel +41-76-507-6363

Sound recording of speeches by Desmond Tutu and Yvo de Boer (16
min, 15 MB):
http://bit.ly/DesmondTutuAndYvoDeBoerCOP15

Sound recording of the press conference at Copenhagen Cathedral
(38 min, 36 MB)
http://bit.ly/DesmondTutuPressConfCOP15

High resolution photos:

Free of charge high resolution pictures (please credit: Peter
Williams/WCC) are available for downloading at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oikoumene/sets--> Copenhagen

Photo gallery (high resolution pictures available):
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7461

>WCC activities for climate justice:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/climatechange

More information about the worldwide ringing of bells:
http://www.bellringing350.org ( http://www.bellringing350.org/
)

Address by WCC general secretary Rev. Samuel Kobia at lobby
dinner in Copenhagen: 
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7454

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.