UPDATED
Despite those who deny there is a climate change issue, countries and religious groups are moving forward again to address the impact of human life on the planet. The UN Climate Change Conference took some baby steps towards addressing the issue. Anglican/Episcopal leaders met during the UN Climate Change Conference to address climate justice. And Rep. John Shimkus(R-IL) who believes the Bible says God will take care of the climate is being replaced as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:
The Telegraph: Cancun meeting reaches climate change agreement:
A comprehensive global deal is now back on track after the agreement, which was reached despite protests by Bolivia during a dramatic finale to the United Nations meeting in Mexico. The crunch talks went late into the night as more than 190 countries attempted to agree on the best way to cut carbon emissions.
The last attempt to reach a global deal in Copenhagen at the end of last year ended in chaos and there were fears that the UN process could collapse completely if talks failed again. However, after two weeks of negotiating, rich and poor countries agreed a compromise that will see all countries committed to cutting emissions for the first time.
The “Cancun package” also sets up a “green fund” to help poor countries cope with climate change and a new scheme to halt deforestation.
Ekklesia reports on the final agreement here:
The ecumenical delegation at COP16 in Cancun leaves this year happier than it left from COP 15 in Copenhagen last year…
…
As the negotiations concluded, the NASA revealed that 2010 is set to be the hottest year since 1880, when the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began recording climate data.
Anglican/Episcopal leaders met during 2010 U.N. Climate Change Conference:
From ENS: Anglican and Episcopal leaders from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean are arriving Dec. 6 in the Dominican Republic for a four-day gathering to explore the intersection between poverty and climate change.
“We’re hoping to change the conversation in the church from one of climate change to climate justice,” said the Rev. P. Joshua “Griff” Griffin, environmental justice missioner in the Diocese of California and one of the conference’s organizers.
Representatives from Cuba, the United States, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic will meet Dec. 7-10 at the Bishop Kellogg Center in San Pedro de Macorís, east of the capital Santo Domingo, for the first Episcopal Climate Justice Gathering, convened by Bishop Marc Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California, and Bishop Naudal Gomes, Diocese of Curitiba, Brazil.
From the gathering’s blog:
The purpose of the meeting is to explore the intersection between poverty and climate change, and perhaps begin to change the conversation in the church from one of “climate change” to “climate justice.”
The gathering convened as world leaders met for a second week of climate talks in Cancún, Mexico, to attempt to hammer out the details of an agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
At the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, negotiators failed to reach a binding deal to replace the protocol. Developing nations are pushing for a second phase of Kyoto, including deeper emissions cuts.
The Episcopal gathering’s presence “signifies the desire to envision together what justice means in the face of climate-induced suffering and continued environmental destruction,” Morck said during his presentation, which focused on the general themes of the climate justice movement.
Final report will be posted here
UPDATE: More news here
Evangelical environmentalists are getting serious.
Good news on the climate front can be hard to come by—in Cancun or on Capitol Hill. So here’s something: At least we know, as of last week, that John Shimkus of Illinois won’t be chairman of the powerful House energy and commerce committee. At a subcommittee hearing last year the GOP congressman— a contender for the gavel that will now go to Michigan Republican Fred Upton—invoked the Bible to justify a do-nothing approach to climate change. “Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood,” the congressman intoned.
Shimkus’s theology “doesn’t hold water,” says Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good and former top lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals. “Let’s be clear,” he told me, “the idea that we can’t irreparably damage this planet by our actions runs contrary to all that’s taught in the scriptures.”
Episcopal Church and ecumenical organizations with a focus on the environment are Interfaith Power and LIght and The Episcopal Ecological Network.