An influential group
of bishops have called on Anglican churches to remove their investments from
the fossil fuel companies that are driving climate change.
In a declaration and set of requests aimed at focusing the church’s attention on the
“unprecedented climate crisis”, the 17 bishops and archbishops said investments
in fossil fuel companies were incompatible with a just and sustainable future.
“We call for a review of our churches’ investment practices with
a view to supporting environmental sustainability and justice by divesting from
industries involved primarily in the extraction or distribution of fossil
fuels,” they said.
The bishops represent the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, a
body that promotes environmental concerns within the 85 million-strong Anglican
communion.
The Church of England is currently
debating whether to dump fossil fuels from its £6.1bn fund.
A spokeswoman for the church’s
commissioners said: “We are committed to completing the review of our climate
change policy before the General Synod in July. We believe climate change is an
urgent ethical issue and share the objectives of the bishops in transitioning
to a low carbon economy.
“We believe there are many ways of
practicing ethical investment including active engagement with companies and
policy makers, as demonstrated in our activist resolutions to Shell and BP to
be debated at their forthcoming AGMs.”
The World Council of Churches, of which
the Church of England is a member, has already ruled
out new fossil fuel investments and
former Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu has called
for a divestment campaign on
fossil fuels to mirror the anti-apartheid movement. “People of conscience need
to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate
change,” he said.
The Guardian’s Keep it in the ground campaign has called
for large philanthropic institutions to divest, highlighting the
incongruity of working to fund major development and health research projects
while funding companies that are exploring for new sources of carbon.
Scientists estimate that more than two
thirds of known fossil fuel reserves cannot be burnedwithout
exceeding the threshold for dangerous climate change impacts.
The man who has Tutu’s former job as
Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend Dr Thabo Makgoba, hosted the group
in February in South Africa. He said the group accepted the science of climate
change and identified climate action as a spiritual imperative for all
Anglicans.
“The problem is spiritual as well as
economic, scientific and political. We have been complicit in a theology of
domination. While God committed the care of creation to us, we have been
careless – but not hopeless,” he said.
“In the words of St Theresa of Avila, we
are God’s hands and feet on earth – now is the time for us, rooted in prayer,
to step up and take action on the climate crisis.”
The declaration also calls on churches
to take a variety of other actions to combat climate change including adopting
energy saving measures and encouraging biodiversity on church property. They
also want to see more climate change education done by churches and for members
to undertake a day of fasting for climate justice on the first day of each
month.
Africa’s first woman bishop, the Right
Reverend Ellinah Wamukoya, also a member of the ACEN, said the fact the burden
of climate change would fall disproportionately on the world’s women was
morally insupportable.
“Women are more often dependent on
natural resources for their livelihoods, so the contribution of women is
essential in decisions around climate change. Our communities must be equal, as
in the Eucharist,” she said.
Other Christian denominations have
already voted to shed their fossil fuel assets. The United Methodists have
committed to dump coal. The Unitarians and United Church of Christ are also reportedly divesting.
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