The UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021. In the Paris meeting in 2015, countries reached the landmark agreement to try to limit the increase in global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Religious Leaders and Interfaith Groups of Aotearoa New Zealand have issued a statement that can be read in full here (thanks to the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand – UPDATE: it is now also here).
Certainly, the time for talking is now behind us; action is long overdue. And let’s be honest – (many) Christians have been part of the problem: anti-Science; living in a 6,000-year-old universe; believing that Jesus is coming back so soon, Climate Change won’t matter; seeing God as giving humans dominion over all that is on earth (Genesis 1:26);…
The statement has leaders from Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Baha’i.
Now we need to see people of faith, individually, together, institutionally within their faith communities, and working together across faith traditions and beyond to others of goodwill so that we work together to arrest the damage of Climate Change for us, for each other, for other living beings, and for our planet.
