Christians worldwide are joining in prayer and action for climate justice. The choice for our generation.
A new international campaign – Renew Our World – expects tens of thousands of Christians from seven countries to join together in prayer and action to beat climate change.
Renew Our World is campaigning for clean renewable energy and sustainable agriculture for the world’s poorest communities. It is launched on 1 March 2017.
Beginning on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, Renew Our World is calling on Christians across the world to join in prayer to help the world’s poorest people to flourish and be resilient in the face of climate change.
The Renew Our World campaign sees prayer as a powerful tool to launch and sustain this international effort. This long-term campaign aims to mobilise and inspire churches around the world to beat hunger, poverty and injustice, starting with climate change.
Renew Our World is being launched by The Anglican Alliance, Tearfund, Micah Global, TEAR Australia, Micah Zambia, EU-CORD and Peace and Hope International (Paz y Esperanza). It is asking governments to make firm plans to keep their promises made in the Paris Climate Agreement, and to invest in clean energy and sustainable agriculture.
Rev Andrew Bowerman, Co-Executive Director of the Anglican Alliance, said, “The Renew Our World campaign will work alongside the Anglican Communion’s global goal to see resilient communities flourishing in harmony with creation across the globe. We are deeply committed to serving with others in the Communion and beyond to enable this to become a reality. ”
Tearfund’s Director of Advocacy, Paul Cook, adds, “The Renew Our World campaign will put pressure on governments around the world to deliver on promises made in the Paris Agreement. Part of that agreement is to see energy renewed with clean power, agriculture transformed using climate-friendly techniques and food renewed by taking action on waste.”
Micah Global’s International Director, Sheryl Haw, adds, “It will take a concerted effort to enable our world to recover. As we each do our part and encourage others to do theirs, holding our governments to account to keep commitments made, we shall see change.”
The Paris Agreement sets out a global action plan to start putting the world on course to address dangerous climate change. Through the Renew our World campaign, Christians will be praying that the 195 countries who signed up to the Agreement will limit global warming to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible and that greenhouse gas emissions will be eliminated.
Through the Renew Our World campaign, Christians will continue to press and pray for change in their countries and will combine internationally ahead of the climate talks this autumn.
In a recent comment, the Most Reverend Archbishop Albert Chama, Primate of the Province of Central Africa and Chair of the Anglican Alliance, pleaded with his fellow Central Africa leaders to take the lead on environmental issues and make the province green and clean. As bishops they were requested to take a leading role in their respective dioceses.
Archbishop Chama emphasised the importance of the environment in the every day lives of humans and other animals and he asked church members to take care of the trees and do the same in their respective homes.
“This is our generation’s choice,” said the Right Reverend Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury, and the Church of England’s lead bishop on climate change. “We can beat hunger and poverty and to do that we need to beat climate change.
“Previous generations didn’t know about climate change; for later generations it will be too late. This is our generation’s challenge. We need to rise to it. As followers of Jesus we already know we need to love our neighbours and care for creation. Lent is a good time to remember the spiritual and physical limits of consumerism.”
To find out how you can get involved in the Renew Our World campaign, please visit www.renewourworld.net
Further information:
Renew Our World unites a global movement of Christians calling for a more just and sustainable world for all.
- At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal (‘The Paris Climate Agreement’). The agreement sets out a global action plan which begins to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming, and to move to zero greenhouse gas emissions. [For further information, see UN Framework Convention on Climate Change]
- The Renew Our World campaign is calling for significant progress to be made on the Paris Climate Agreement. Each country in the campaign will focus on one or more of these promises:
- Setting targets and plans to transition to zero emissions to get back on track to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.
- Investing in clean energy, run locally so it reaches everyone, especially those in poverty.
- Supporting more sustainable agriculture that doesn’t result in huge emissions and helps communities at risk from to drought and floods.