What's New in Climate and Sustainability

October 2008: Cutting Emissions, Earth from the Air, Campaigning from the Ground

UK Government's Decision to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80%

The Government's announcement that it was committing itself in the Climate Change Bill to 80% rather than 60% cuts in emissions by 2050  was this week's big  news -- with the simultaneous announcement of proposals for feed-in tariffs and an attack on unfair pricing. Find out more, by clicking on

The EU meanwhile had a more difficult time with its negotiations . . .

To find out more about the EU negotiations, see 

Earth from the Air

This exhibition is on display at the Oxford Castle until January 2009. It consists of 120 giant flood-lit (?!) pictures that can be viewed day and night. Leaving aside the floodlighting, the exhibit offers a tremendous chance to appreciate the vast and diverse beauties of God's creation. . . . and to think about our obligations of stewardship and care.  For more information, go to the Earth from the Air website. 

Oxfordshire from the Ground

As part of the events surrounding "Earth from the Air," Climate-X has prepared an exhibition and posters documenting local responses to Climate Change called "Oxfordshire from the Ground." One of the three posters shows Oxfordshire community responses to climate change, and includes many pictures of the Living Green event held on St. Margaret's Church, Oxford. Congratulations to St Margaret's for representing the Churches' involvement in this issue. If you would like to download the poster, click here. And if you'd like larger copies of the posters, or want to email in something your church is doing for inclusion in "Oxfordshire from the Ground," email jo[at] climatex.org, or ring 01865 275 856.

September 2008: Hurricanes and Floods

What are the links between hurricanes and climate change?

  • This is a controversial area. The link between global warming and hurricanes is one that has seized the popular imagination . . . witness the poster for "An Inconvenient Truth." Having said that, the explicit link between climate change and the impact of Katrina was one of the points on which a UK judge found "An Inconvenient Truth" inaccurate. So is there or isn't there a link?

    The New Scientist has a helpful blog which touches on the subject (and on the other contested areas of An Inconvenient Truth) . . . and a search of Nature (if you can get, or are willing to pay for, access) provides any number of references. An assessment report was written by participants in the World Meteorological Association's November 2006 International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones. This has all the caution one would expect from a piece of international committee work; its basic position, in the end, is that the links between global warming and hurricane frequency are unclear, but that a correlation between future global warming and increased hurricane intensity is fairly certain, with the questions being ones of degree. They note, moreover, that "Despite the diversity of research opinions on this issue it is agreed that if there has been a recent increase in tropical cyclone activity that is largely anthropogenic in origin, then humanity is faced with a substantial and unanticipated threat."

    An Associated Press website provides some interesting food for thought in this respect: it shows the tracks of Atlantic hurricanes over the decades, providing an index of both frequency and intensity. The number of thick, deep red lines (representing Category 5 hurricanes) recently is quite noticeable.

    But what does it all really mean for people? The pictures and videos from Haiti  pierce the heart, as did the fervent posting on one recent blog from that country when another tropical storm seemed to be heading their way: "Can you believe it!  Pray…pray…pray that it stays FAR FAR away from us." In the US, the Houston Chronicle has been giving full coverage of the impact of Ike. When we talk about climate change creating more intense storms, we are talking about worse scenarios than these becoming more frequent. It's a good reason for starting to change our behaviour to avoid worst-case global warming scenarios . . . and for working to ensure that vulnerable communities are adequately funded to prepare for the results of any intensification that may already be set in motion.


How can we help in Haiti and Bihar?

     

September 2008: A Selection of New and Interesting Items

New from the Churches

  • helping your church "go green"

    The Church of England has released "Don't Stop at the Lights," a guide by Claire Foster and David Shreeve that aims to resource churches to take climate change seriously and act on their concerns.

    The newsletters from "Creation Challenge," a joint project of the URC and the Methodist Church are always packed full of useful information and contacts. The August newsletter can be read here.

    Christian Ecology Link has a new programme of study called ecocell. They note that it is "a toolkit to help you to live a more simple, more Christian lifestyle. . . .Intended for use with house-groups, bible-study groups or any other group it comprises 5 modules covering everyday lifestyles - Waste, Food and Shopping, Energy in the Home, Water and Travel and Transport." The material can be ordered on CD from CEL, or a copy is available on loan from CCOW.

    The Diocese of Oxford's World Development Group is sponsoring the third in its series of "Climate Change: God's World and Our Response" panels on the 30th of September. The panel, chaired by the Bishop of Dorchester, will be held at St John the Baptist, Burford, and will feature a presentation on the science of climate change by Revd. Prof. Ian James, Diocesan Environment Officer; a discussion of climate change's impact on developing countries by Paul Valentin, International Director of Christian Aid; and a discussion of what we and our churches can do by the Revd Sarah Tillett, Vicar of Bloxham and board member of A Rocha and Tearfund. Full details in the Events section. 

  • worship materials

    See below in the July/August section for Creation Time, Operation Noah, and Call to Creation resources.

New on the Science of Climate Change

  • A special issueof the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society has been published on Geoengineering, or large-scale interventions or manipulations of the environment that might help deal with climate change. This is a contentious area, but the President of the Royal Society argues that "the challenge we face in avoiding the worst impacts of climate change" necessitates looking at all options that might help alleviate the problem. To read the preface and certain articles from the report, click here. The whole is summarised in a Guardian article here. 
Campaigning Roundup
  •  MPs will vote on the Climate Change Bill in October - so this is our last chance to press for a strengthened bill.  You can take action with Tearfund by clicking here or with  CAFOD by clicking here.

  • Christian Aid is asking supporters to email E.ON to protest their plans to build a new coal-fired power plant at Kingsnorth; WDM is asking supporters to email the Prime Minister on the same subject.

July/August 2008

New from the Churches

  • policy

    Climate was a key topic at the July 2008 URC General Assembly, where Mark Dowd's talk focused on environmental refugees.

    The Church of England's General Synod, also in July, debated a paper entitled "Climate Change and Human Security: A Challenging Environment of Injustice," which looked at issues around the impact of climate change globally, and the questions of equity involved. Synod accepted the paper's recommendations that the Church become a corporate member of Stop Climate Chaos and that it continue steps to establish a Church Adaptation Fund for projects in developing countries adversely affected by Climate Change. 

    worship materials

    Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and its constituent members are encouraging congregations to take "Time for Creation" between 1 September and 4 October. If you want to plan a service with a "green" theme then or at any other time, you can't do better than to look at the CTBI resources for Creation Time. Prayers, sermon notes, activities for children and young people. . . . Just an extraordinary collection.

    "This advent, we want PROPHETS, not PROFITS!"  Great slogan, isn't it? To engage your church in thinking about a sustainable, Christ-focused Advent, take a look at Operation Noah's "Putting the Waiting back into Wanting" campaign. Op Noah also has a pack for doing a day of prayer and fasting on climate change.

    Download Eco-Congregations latest newsletter to find out more about what churches are doing locally.

    CAFOD has produced a Call of Creation PowerPoint and Call of Creation reflections, available from http://www.cafod.org.uk/worship/live-simply. They link to the Catholic Bishops' Policy Statement, "Call of Creation," available from Progressio.  CAFOD has also produced material for youth groups.

 

New on Climate Change and Development

  • Africa

    Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment contains pictorial evidence of the impacts of change in more than 100 locations across all countries in Africa. You can download the atlas, as well as powerpoints, satellite images, interactive maps and more at the UNEP website here.

  • MDGs

    The challenge of meeting the MDGs in Africa is compounded by climate change, according to a joint report from the UN and the African Union. You can read about, and download, the report of the MDGs Africa Steering Group here.

    The UN recently held a special event on climate change and the MDGs. You can read Andrew Simms' speech here. 

  • Emerging Economies

    At the end of May, EU Commission President Barroso and his Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change met with members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's high level advisory group on climate change. You can read the report of the conference here. You can also find the Indian National Climate Action Plan and the Indian "Climate Challenge" response to it here.

  • World Bank and Sustainability

    The World Bank's internal review body has noted the need for progress in the way the Bank considers environmental factors in its work. Read the report here.

New on the international policy front

           What happened at the latest climate talks in Bonn?
           At the G8? Get analysis of the latter from CAFOD,  Carbon Positive, Oxfam, Tearfund

New on the national policy front

  • The "Green New Deal" group, which includes Andrew Simms, Ann Pettifor, Caroline Lucas, Charles Secrett, Colin Hines, Jeremy Leggett, Larry Elliott, Richard Murphy and Tony Juniper, released a report entitled "A Green New Deal: Joined-up policies to solve the triple crunch of the credit crisis, climate change and high oil prices." The report calls for investment in renewables, the creation of "green collar" jobs,  "reining in reckless aspects of the financial sector but making low-cost capital available to fund the UK's green economic shift," and "building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture, and unions to put the interests of the real economy ahead of those of footloose finance." You can download the report here.
  • A new book called "The Limits to Travel: How far will you go?" by David Metz, formerly Chief Scientist for the Dept of Transport, questions the sustainability of  the way we think about travel and makes suggestions for improvements.

    New on the personal action/lifestyle front

  • measuring our impact . . . and taking steps

    Have a look at Operation Noah's "No Fly Pledge," (family emergencies and business travel can be excepted). If you want hard data on the amounts of CO2 released by flying, use the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator to work it out.

    If you'd like to get better feedback on your home energy use, why not try the Environmental Change Institute's new tool, i-measure.

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