Faith & COP26: a Briefing from Glasgow
“Faith groups are involved like never before.”
October 5th the Climate Cafe Multifaith welcomed Adrian Shaw for a conversation about the status and the hopes on the ground in Glasgow in the run-up to COP26 which begins October 31st. Shaw shared a presentation, and then we entered into a robust conversation about COP, economy, children, creation and hope. Below are highlights, with links and information, as well.
Adrian Shaw has spent two decades in policy and research in local government in Scotland and London, and is currently supporting preparations for the COP. He is a member of working groups, Conference of European Churches, European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN), UN Interfaith Liaison Committee and others, and a forme he served as the Climate Change Officer for the Church of Scotland. Find him now with Eco-Congregations Scotland and Interfaith Scotland.
Below is a video from Shaw’s briefing which includes plans for the next few weeks and what churches can do. Also below scroll for snippets from the Q&A discussion, and links/info about COP26 for people of faith.
A few key points came up in the conversation, including the concerns that the long shadow of Covid-19 (from inequities in vaccine supply, to safe travel accommodations, to vaccine hesitancy) has meant that yet again, people from the global south face additional challenges to attend and be heard at the global gathering. For people of faith, we recognize a moral thread calling for voices especially of the marginalized to be heard. Especially as these voices often belong to those who know that is needed most of all.
Those engaged in conversations within the world of faiths acknowledge the need to speak to equity. Concerns around equity cut through the dizzying layers of carbon charts and measurements. As Shaw puts it, the imbalance of access for attendees from different parts of the world “draws attention to the inequity that churches are used to dealing with.” Recognizing inequity and as the moral center to the conversation helps “break down the mental barriers that climate change is somehow this scientific subject with tons of carbon and percentages which nobody really understands. No, here it is about equity and justice and that is our core agenda in many ways.”
While Covid-19 has made inequities even more glaringly apparent, even without the complication of a world-wide pandemic, the question of unequal power and presence at the COPs has been ongoing. This moral failure of the privileged is compounded by the irony that people comprising the delegations of the countries hardest hit by climate change are among the least culpable people in the world for the crisis we all now unequally share.
Glasgow city skyline photo by Craig McKay on Unsplash. Cropped.
Adrian Shaw sees the impact the question of equity has had on people of faith in recognizing the imperative of the climate crisis, leading to a “great involvement” of faith-based NGOs (Non-governmental organizations). “Christian Aid, UK CAFOD, Tearfund, and Germany’s Bread for the World and others got involved with climate change because they saw the impact in countries where they have partner organizations…and that drew them ten years ago or more to say climate change is one of the key issues we face.”
For many people especially in Christian traditions, a journey to a COP in Scotland offers an opportunity for redemptive pilgrimage, humbling and opening the traveler in hopes of gaining the witness and moral fortitude needed to let go of comforts and serve hope. Pilgrims are encouraged to sing, chant, light candles, and especially to pray for decisionmakers to do the right thing in Glasgow, following up on the Paris Agreement with strength and moral integity in leading especially the richer nations to save ‘Our Common Home.’
Places like the Taize Community in France and the Abbey of Iona in the Scottish Highlands have long been a site of Spiritual pilgrimage, for people of all ages but especially young people, every year. That energy has spread around the globe in preparing for COP26, with scheduled events in person, and internationally over zoom, in support of those gathering at home, in synagogues, and/or shouldering travel bags and coming to Scotland. Pilgrimage stops include places across the UK, and churches and holy sites, and there are plans for interfaith vigils, prayers, and services across the UK.
A global invitation went out also to every church and faith community around the world to Ring Out For Climate October 30th for COP.
Taize, France. Photo by Paul Hermann on Unsplash.
Just as young people are participating in prayer and pilgrimage events for climate at COP26, there is a corresponding need for those who are supposed to be the adults in the room to listen to them. The churches is Scotland like the churches here in the US, are challenged to do better when it comes to listening to children and young people. Adrian Shaw noted the tremendous anxiety experienced by young people, as well as the energy of young people’s movements, such as Fridays for Future. “I think there’s hope there for those voices to really demand change and come forward with ideas that we should be listening to.”
“A child born today...in their lifetime they will experience the full force of climate change.”
Not only are our children most effected, but all of creation is experiencing destruction from climate change—destruction of the glaciers, forests, reefs, and biodiversity of just one hundred years ago.
In the beginning of this work, an effort was made by theologians and faith leaders simply to help congregations gain an appreciation for the natural world. In predominantly white churches and traditions, especially in the US, the conversation about the natural world was always in the context of ‘dominion’ interpreted alongside capitalism to mean it was good for a man to take from the natural world, put it to use, and profit off it. This interpretation comes to a reckoning, however, when matched to the sheer scale of destruction seen in the last 100 years of the industrial age.
We know the impact of climate change on species and habitats is profound, and that causes us to reflect more deeply on the rest of creation—of which we are a part. …and faith groups with their obligation to care for others and care for creation, must be part of that discussion.
—Adrian Shaw
Overall our conversation spanned a few topics of conversation. There was the briefing, with a rundown on where things stand with events and logistics with the run-up to COP. Then the conversation drew in moral and ethical themes, inequality, youth, and a question of a just transition and moral economy.
“We recognize that the economy as it now stands is grossly exploitative…. Whoever can come up the that idea [for] a new moral economy…will get the Nobel Prize many times over.”
—Adrian Shaw
In the presentation portion (first video) Adrian Shaw offers a list of things churches can do. Find information on that as well here with also a printout/pdf. As we recognize the peril of climate change and the importance of the COP, those of us knee deep in this concern paused to recognize that the issues of inequality and unsustainability cross every border and boundary. Sometimes, the most important thing to do today isn’t to doom-scroll twitter in search of #COP26 hashtags and any sign of hope. Sometimes the priorities are hospice visits, memorial plans, and an urgent plea to stop an eviction. Their is no either/or. All of this effort together is the fullest measure of conversation possible if we are indeed realizing that solutions to climate change and solutions to systemic poverty and environmental racism are best developed collaboratively—while listening to those who are most impacted.
I personally have been very grateful to The Poor People’s Campaign and others knee deep in the work addressing rural investment, homelessness, farm work & workers, and poverty here in the US and globally. All of it needs to come together, to address this widening crisis with an equally widening hope.
And there is indeed tremendous hope. In Glasgow starting October 31, 2021, delegations of people from nations around the globe will come together with one stated goal rising from the hearts and in the voices of billions of people—and approximately 7 billion people of faith. These entrusted delegates, visitors, and participants are charged with all urgency to speak for and act on change. With all that energy and spirit, all things are not only possible, but are in many places already in motion.
Sources, resources, glossary and links:
(I’m still adding to this section, please check back.)
EcoCongregations Scotland & Interfaith Scotland are in the midst of the activity in Glasgow with great resources. Thank you to Adrian Shaw who is a wealth of help and information. See also this EcoCongregations short video, Prayer for COP.
Read also this Glasgow Multi-faith Declaration for COP 26.
Climate Cafe is a Scotland-based effort and will be offering pop-up cafes and opportunities both in-person and virtual to participate in conversations around COP both in a grass-roots capacity, connecting with the Scottish government, and in collaboration with The Climate Reality Project.
A gathering of Religious Leaders from Global Faiths at the Vatican resulted in a joint statement. Read about it on the Buddhist Door News, EarthBeat, and the UNFCCC website—World Religious Leaders and Scientists make Pre-COP Appeal.
Within the US find ways to involve your faith community and get involved yourself with the Faiths 4 Climate Justice initiative from GreenFaith. GreenFaith is also connected globally. More regionally, look to your local state affiliate chapter of Interfaith Power and Light, there are regional efforts such as this October 23 webinar from Tennessee IPL.
A number of US based denomination, faith groups and traditions are also engaging COP. Including the Episcopal Church,
Glossary
COP has its own lingo—of course! If there is anything people of faith can understand it is trying to explain impenetrable ‘church world’ lingo to our flummoxed neighbors. Find the comprehensive glossary for COP here, and my quick terms following:
COP - Conference of the Parties. Sometimes COP or CoP. The COP is a policy and information gathering (Conference) between interested Parties (including national delegations, organizations and individuals) for the purpose of making decisions and committing to certain actions.
COP26 - the 26th COP. (Find more information on these 26 COPs than you will ever need to know.) Every year (or so) there is a COP; it is held in different cities around the world.
UN - United Nations. The overarching international organization charged with the effort to study pressing global issues, including studying climate change globally and comprehensively.
UNFCCC - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This is the entity (or secretariat) within the United Nations that studies, reports on, and conferences on Climate Change to include study from every part of the world brought together under this one framework.
NGO - Non-governmental Organizations. These are corporations and/or non-profits who have an interest in the COPs and their outcomes and participate in some way.
Kyoto Protocol (1997) and Paris Agreement (2015) - Two prior international agreements addressing Climate Change.
NDC - Nationally Determined Contribution. ( Or, INDC, Intended Nationally Determined Contribution). This is what each nation has agreed to do in addressing climate change, atmospheric carbon, and greenhouse gas emissions.
IPCC Reports - Yes, part of UNFCCC and used during COP to assist the Parties (national delegations) to better understand the challenges we face globally and act with commitments toward remedy and response to those challenges. (A new IPCC report on the science was just released, see “what do you want to sustain?”a conversation on our blog.)
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. She organizes the Climate Cafe Multifaith as a co-leader of Faiths4Future. Find her in real life in Southern Oregon, working as Steward of Climate with the nonprofit Circle Faith Future.