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Belonging to the World Church in a time of global warming
We often say the United reformed Church is part of the World Church, and
it's the role of the Belonging to the World Church programme to put our
words into action. To date some 1000 people have been directly involved
and perhaps 4000 indirectly involved in BWC programmes. Eleven of the
synods now have Global Partner relationships with our international
partners from India to Jamaica, Mozambique to Taiwan. BWC works with
Training, Youth Work, Commitment for Life, and Racial Justice and
Multicultural Ministries, the synods, local churches and individuals to
provide an international programme that benefits the United Reformed
Church and its partners.
While all this international activity is important for the life of the
United Reformed Church, it does beg a question: 'how do we stay in touch
with our international partners responsibly in a time of global
warming?'
The issues, of course, are air flights and the resulting carbon
emissions. Air travel contributes between 2% and 5% of the world's
carbon emissions - the amounts vary according to who is reporting. There
are two obvious responses to CO2 emissions: carbon offsetting measures
and reducing our carbon output.
plant a tree every trip
It's simple. Fly away on church business and pay to plant a tree. Done.
Well, not quite. Carbon offsetting is only a delaying strategy. It does
not actually remove carbon from the system. Trees temporarily store CO2,
but can release carbon back into the air through decay, fire, disease
and timber harvesting. There are other problems too. The more the rich
countries in the North consume, the more carbon credits they buy, and
the more land is used in the South to plant trees. We don't tend to
plant our carbon offsetting trees in our own back yards. As a result,
large tree plantations are appearing in the South often causing numerous
problems for local people.
Having said all that, carbon offsetting can be part of a responsible
scheme to address global warming if done properly and accompanied by
carbon reduction. We now calculate the carbon footprint of every flight
arranged through the BWC programme and buy the necessary carbon offset
credits. Not only that, we are working with the Council for World
Mission to set up a Transformational Mission programme with the Kiribati
Protestant Church.
Kiribati, formely the Gilbert Islands, is made up of 33 atolls in the
Pacific, many of them are low-lying and threatened by rising sea levels
and storm damage due to climate change. This is a source of concern for
the Kiribati Protestant Church. The transformational mission programme
will include an environmental project using local ecological systems,
such as planting mangrove as a natural sea defence along vulnerable
sections of shoreline, and other suitable natural alternatives based on
the local ecology. The programme will benefit the environmental
situation of the people of Kiribati and, as the United Reformed Church's
carbon offsetting credit project, will balance our domestic and
international travel.
educational programme
Part of the programme has to be educational, as the situation in
Kiribati is little understood outside the Pacific. Though it is hard to
be sure, it is estimated that many Pacific islands will become
uninhabitable in 25 to 50 years. For our partners in Kiribati the
devastating affects of climate change are happening now. Even so, the
remedial action we take today helps them to buy the time required for
the proposals from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to
take effect.
The programme will educate United Reformed Church congregations on the
impact of climate change in the Pacific, how they can calculate and
reduce their carbon emissions, and responsibly offset what cannot be
reduced. Likewise the project will educate Kiribati Protestant Church
congregations on climate change and how their church can be involved in
CO2 reduction. This will be done through a small group exchange
programme exploring the impact of climate change in both countries and
how people are responding. Hopefully this will deepen our appreciation
of the need for urgent and radical action to ensure that the longer term
consequences of climate change are not realised.
cut backs needed too
As part of an overall scheme to address climate change, responsible
carbon offsetting programmes are important. However, we must be honest
and admit that the real issue is carbon reduction. To that end, the BWC
programme is introducing carbon reduction measures.
From this July group visits will be reduced from eight to six members.
Also, understanding that the people we meet through BWC will most likely
be the hardest hit by global warming, participants in BWC programmes
will be invited to take action themselves through cutting their own
emissions. We are also contemplating the reduction of individual grants
and thus the number of flights undertaken through BWC programmes.
Finally, we will be encouraging train travel in the UK and Europe
whenever possible.
Sacrifices have to be made but international relations cannot exist
without air travel. The BWC programme is trying to address both of these
realities... We take this seriously, hence our commitment to working
with the church in Kiribati, and the carbon reduction resolution coming
to this year's General Assembly. The hope is to contribute to far
greater reductions overall than we generate through BWC, and to raise
people's awareness of the challenge to share resources in this small
world of ours.
Dale Rominger is the International Relations Programme Officer at
Church House
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