Conference of European Churches - Office of Communications

Press release No. 09-10/e

Brussels, 09 March 2009

Issued jointly with the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE)

Churches in Europe encourage EU heads of States and Governments to play a leading role in tackling the climate change

“Securing a stable climate is one of the most pressing moral and political challenges of the twenty-first century. Failure to address this challenge would amount to a moral failure on the part of humanity as a whole”. This is a major statement of the joint letter of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Secretariat of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) to the President of the EU Council and Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, just few days ahead of the Spring meeting of the European Council.

Churches in Europe encourage the Council to give strong attention to the climate change agenda and to the preparation of the EU to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Copenhagen later this year (7-18 December), which should adopt the future global agreement on Green House Gas emissions. Churches encourage the Heads of States and Government to adopt a position which should go beyond the proposal laid down in the Communication from the European Commission from January 2008.

“In the light of the EU’s historic responsibility as one of the world’s major polluters and having due regard to the unequivocal policy recommendations of the scientific community, the EU’s unilateral 20 % emissions reduction target is not ambitious enough”, says the letter. “The EU should commit itself unilaterally to a mitigation target of at least 30 % below 1990 levels by 2020. This target should to the greatest possible extent be achieved within the boundaries of the EU, as this will ensure the necessary structural changes to be made within the European Union”.

The letter acknowledges “that in the context of the current economic and financial crisis, more ambitious emissions reduction targets might be perceived by EU Member States as a great challenge”. However, “the costs of mitigation and adaptation policies rise significantly with every year action is delayed. Not doing enough would therefore also be unreasonable from an economic point of view. We believe that the actions required do not demand unacceptable sacrifices by the developed countries”.

Churches in Europe further stress the need to tackle climate change with a view on the fact that the highest burden of climate change will be beared by the developing countries.

These countries will, however, not be able “without far-reaching technological assistance and financial aid – in addition to the traditional development aid – to decarbonise their economies nor to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. We encourage European leaders to show solidarity and the political will to protect millions of people in developing countries from the loss of their lives and livelihoods as a result of global warming caused by the industrialised world”.

Churches in Europe believe that the opportunity to pave the way for an ambitious and equitable global climate agreement should not be missed.

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The Conference of European Churches (CEC) is a fellowship of some 120 Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican and Old Catholic Churches from all countries of Europe, plus 40 associated organisations. CEC was founded in 1959. It has offices in Geneva, Brussels and Strasbourg.

For more information:
Luca Negro
Church and Society Commission of CEC
Phone +32 2 230 17 32
Fax +32 2 231 14 13
e-mail: csc@cec-kek.be