Faith communities call for just climate deal at COP19

At the Warsaw Climate Change Conference representatives of faith communities called for a just climate deal to be adopted by the UN in 2015.

The issue of the impact of climate justice on vulnerable communities was brought into focus during a joint event of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, held alongside COP19 in Warsaw on 21 November.

Philippa Bonella of SCIAF, who is also a director of Eco-Congregation Scotland, co-chaired a press conference at which  Naderev Yeb Saño, the Philippines’ representative at the UN climate change talks spoke about the  “spiritual fast” that lasted for the two weeks of the negotiations. Held in a context of more than 5,000 casualties and the destruction caused recently by typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, Saño’s symbolic act of fasting was joined by faith communities in Poland and beyond.

Faith communities have called to continue the spiritual fast one day per month until the next COP20, to be held in Lima, Peru in December 2014.

You can learn more about the WCC work in Warsaw here: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/press-centre/news/faith-communities-advocate-climate-justice-at-cop19-1 and watch the press conference here: http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/cop19/templ/play.php?id_kongresssession=7073&theme=unfccc