Bali climate change 'roadmap'– small steps on a big issue

Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-CWS

Story by Ann Walle/CWS

In December, on the Indonesian island of Bali, an international agreement was signed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This agreement, informally called the “Bali Roadmap,” was deemed only a modest success by many observers from civil society, including Church World Service: It lacks specific targets for greenhouse gas cuts, seen as essential to mitigating climate change and preventing future disaster, especially for the world’s poor.

The lack of specific reduction targets in green-house gas emissions was seen as a concession to the U.S. administration, which urged that all targets remain non-binding or flexible.

Nevertheless, Bali’s outcomes reflect some progress toward ensuring future agreements and unity toward addressing climate change and related justice issues. And, says Rev. John L. McCullough, CWS Executive Director and CEO, “the tide of consciousness has turned in the U.S. about global warming.”

“People of faith in the U.S. have an important role to play in helping to create the political will needed to energetically, thoughtfully, and compassionately address the impacts of climate change in the U.S. and on developing countries,” says McCullough.

“The issue for CWS is how climate change frames development and justice,” says Rajyashri Waghray, who directs education and advocacy for Church World Service. And, according to the international experts who comprise the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, “the impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately upon developing countries and poor persons within all countries.”

“Changing weather patterns, rising sea levels, and the myriad of related other alterations occurring around the globe are not equal opportunity events,” notes McCullough, explaining that 90 percent of the agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa depends on rain to water crops and livestock. “Changing rainfall patterns will be devastating to a region where malnutrition, food security, and rural livelihoods are already often tenuous,” he says.

A recent UN Human Development Report assessed that developing countries alone will require more than $80 billion a year to support communities’ capacity to diversify livelihoods and employ other strategies to adapt to anticipated climate changes.

Church World Service has joined an emerging coalition of development, faith-based, and environmental groups in the U.S. looking at appropriate U.S. foreign policy directions in light of global warming. Together with coalition partners, CWS is advocating for justice as a central element of the climate change debate.

“In thinking about global warming,” says McCullough, “I am reassured that Christianity is a religion of hope. As Christians we are called to live into and to act out of hope. It’s heartening to see that some members of Congress and presidential candidates are willing to initiate serious debate about U.S. energy policy, and I hope that many people of faith will ask them about their positions and commitments.”