Climate Justice Statement

Church Leaders and Experts call for leadership and a focus on the poor in climate change talks

CIDSE-Caritas Internationalis Delegation to New York - statement

SIGNATORIES

Cardinal Keith O’BRIEN Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland

Paul CHITNIS Director SCIAF/Caritas Scotland

Joseph Cornelius DONNELLY Permanent Delegate to the UN for Caritas Internationalis, USA

Sister Delci Maria FRANZEN Comissão Episcopal Pastoral para o Serviço da Caridade, Brazil

Bishop Theotonius GOMES Bishop of the Archdiocese of Dhaka, President of Caritas Bangladesh

René GROTENHUIS CIDSE President Director Cordaid/Caritas Netherlands

Jim HUG President Center of Concern, USA

Janet MANGERA Executive Secretary Caritas Kenya

Sergio MARELLI Director Volontari nel Mondo - FOCSIV, Italy

Bernd NILLES CIDSE Secretary General, Belgium

Archbishop John ONAIYEKAN Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria

Nafisa D'SOUZA Executive Director of Laya Resource Centre, India

Elizabeth PEREDO BELTRÁN Board Director Fundación Solón, Bolivia

Bishop Alvaro RAMAZZINI IMERI Bishop of San Marcos, Guatemala

Josef SAYER Director General Misereor, Germany

            "We Catholic Bishops and climate change experts from the developed and developing world have come to call on world leaders to show political and moral leadership, and focus on the poorest people at the Summit on Climate Change in New York.
 
We believe the devastating excesses that have caused climate change show gross disrespect for the Earth which serves all life on it with dutiful care. We work everyday with those among the one billion people in the world in greatest need. We come here together with Caritas Internationalis and CIDSE, together the largest humanitarian and development alliance in the world, to speak on their behalf. Today climate change accounts for over 300,000 deaths each year, with 99% of all casualties occurring in developing countries. People in developing countries are suffering despite  having done least to cause climate change – and they will be even more gravely affected in the future.

Bold action is needed now.  With only weeks to go until a new  global deal on climate change is to be agreed at the Copenhagen Summit, we are deeply

concerned that these people, individuals with dignity and rights, are being ignored in the preoccupation with national short term interests of richer countries.Success is not agreement at any cost. The agreement will first and foremost be judged by how the poorest and most vulnerable people will fare under its provisions. Copenhagen must achieve an equitable and binding outcome that reflects the urgency of the climate crisis and ensures effective mid term as well as long term actions.

As world leaders, you have a moral duty to current and future generations to seize this once in a generation opportunity to stop global warming decisively in its tracks, and to set all  nations on a path to sustainable and equitable development.
 
With their greater responsibility and capacity, developed countries must take the lead by agreeing to significant binding reductions in their greenhouse gases emissions under the new agreement, and by ensuring the provision of sufficient and secure new financing for adaptation, mitigation and low carbon development in developing countries.

There is still hope, but we have no time to lose. We know what needs to be done; we know it must be done.  What we need is the political will to make it happen.

We need a powerful signal to build the trust so desperately needed to raise ambitions over the next few months.  We need a message of hope to those who are suffering, and to all who care about the future of the human family, that their leaders are committed to overcoming this extraordinary threat to humanity.

We therefore ask you to give the United Nations process the highest political priority over the coming months, and so   commit NOW to attending personally the climate summit in Copenhagen in December."

The CIDSE-Caritas Internationalis
Climate Justice Delegation

As world leaders are about to meet in New York for a Summit on Climate Change called by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the members of the CIDSE-Caritas Internationalis delegation issue a statement for Climate Justice urging them to focus on the poor and to achieve an effective, equitable and binding outcome in Copenhagen.

Download the Climate Justice Statement in PDF  

Back to the Delegation's page


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