Churches blast lack of climate agreement

A protester holds a globe during a demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec. 16. (CNS/Reuters)

GENEVA -- Faith groups have expressed disappointment and anger over the outcome of the United Nations talks on climate change that have ended in Copenhagen, pledging to continue to press for climate justice.

"With a lack of transparency, the agreement reached this past week by some countries was negotiated without consensus but rather in secret among the powerful nations of the world," the World Council of Churches' program executive on climate change, Guillermo Kerber, stated.

Kerber said an agreement "called the Copenhagen Accord was negotiated between five countries: the U.S., China, India, South Africa and Brazil." The agreement "failed to make commitments to reduce emissions to keep the temperature rise in check."

After the conclusion of the Dec. 8-18 summit, Kerber asserted, "This has proven to be a strong strike against multilateralism and the democratic principles in the U.N. system." (See also: Environmentalists call Copenhagen Accord 'a triumph of spin over substance.')

Caritas Internationalis, an international consortium of Roman Catholic relief agencies, and CIDSE, an alliance of Catholic development agencies, denounced the Copenhagen accord as "a weak and morally reprehensible deal which will spell disaster for millions of the world's poorest people."

A delegation that included Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other ecumenical leaders preached and marched during the 11-day meeting.

"Although this is not the first time an agreement has not been reached at a [UN] meeting," said Elias Abramides, the leader of the WCC delegation, "this time it was worse because of the lack of transparency and shadow negotiations by some countries without involving all."

Kenyan professor Jesse Mugambi, a member of the WCC working group on climate change, said, "Copenhagen was a missed opportunity by the industrialized countries to lead by example."

"Most of the industrialized countries didn't show the needed commitment to lead the whole world in an effective way to address the challenges of climate change."

"I'm not happy about the way the process is going," Safia Abbi of Cordaid Kenya, a Catholic development and aid agency, said Dec. 18. "I'm angry at the world leaders. I feel they have the power to act, but they are not acting."

In Britain, Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed Churches issued a joint statement on Monday (Dec. 21) that condemned the world's richest countries for failing to reach a binding agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

"The failure by negotiators at the climate talks in Copenhagen to agree to cut carbon emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, after two weeks of negotiations, represents an immense set-back for rich and poor countries alike," said the Rev. John Marsh, moderator of the general assembly of the United Reformed Church in Britain.

Kathy McNeely of the Maryknoll Global Concerns Office, who was in Copenhagen for the first week of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, told Catholic News Service, that church groups must focus on educating members of Congress about climate change issues before lawmakers consider a climate change bill, probably in early 2010.

Faith, economics and the environment are interconnected, she said. Education by church groups can "help people make the links between our economic system, which is focused on consumption to keep the economy going, and its impact on ecology," said McNeely, who coordinates Maryknoll's Faith-Economy-Ecology project.

She called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to classify greenhouse gases as pollutants that must be regulated a "hopeful sign."

McNeely said she also was encouraged by the number of young people who participated in protests and other activities in Copenhagen during the conference. Youth groups in the United States raised funds to help young people from poor countries attend, she said.

Abbi called for people of faith in industrialized countries to forge a closer bond with countries already suffering the effects of climate change.

"We want them to be in solidarity with us," she said. "For us, the impact of climate change is real."

Watch the NCR Ecology channel and the NCR Today group blog for updates on the Copenhagen climate conference.

[Reporting from Ecumenical News Service and Catholic News Services is included in this article.]