September 25, 2009
NEW YORK CITY -- Church World Service is redoubling efforts to mobilize the public, its member communions and its staff to pressure elected officials to "demonstrate greater moral leadership" on the issue of climate change.
The humanitarian agency today urged individuals and groups to join in activities aimed at expressing "support for fair, effective and binding caps on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change." The effort, called "Just Cap It," is part of a day of global action on October 24 to bring attention to the issue. CWS also is offering a list of suggestions for individuals and groups to show their support for action on climate change.
In a Sept. 15 letter sent to the humanitarian agency's member communions in advance of President Obama's climate change address to the United Nations, Church World Service Executive Director John McCullough reminded church leaders of the "need to set the global bar high."
Rev. McCullough has made the same request in a letter to Church World Service staff.
Justice for the poor is at the heart of CWS's advocacy around climate change. The people of developing nations contribute the least to the environmental degradation that causes climate change, yet they suffer the most. Church World Service believes that justice demands that the United States, one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, must agree to limit its greenhouse emissions and to pay its fair share of the cost for developing countries to adapt to climate change.
As part of its Enough for All advocacy campaign around climate change, Church World Service is encouraging people to urge their U.S. senators to include this adaptation funding in climate change legislation now being drafted by the Senate.
The advocacy push is part of the effort to influence the U.S. position in advance of December meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark, where world leaders will attempt to finalize a new global agreement to curb climate change.
CWS also is encouraging people to take the Countdown to Copenhagen Pledge, which asks President Obama to attend the summit meetings and includes several steps to help address climate change.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Activists from the Fisherfolks Federation in Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand demonstrate in front of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok September ...
