Churches in USA expand campaign to fight global warming
Update, February 2011:
The National
Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE)
continues to form coalitions for education and advocacy
work on global warming throughout the USA.
Since
2002, the four organisations that make up the
partnership (the National Council of Churches of Christ,
the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Evangelical
Environmental Network and the Coalition on the
Environment and Jewish Life) have, between them,
launched numerous campaigns to promote environmental
education.
Some of the work done by the four
partners:
-
The National Council of Churches’ Eco Justice
programme currently has a range of USA-wide
environmental campaigns, covering issues such as
carbon reduction, water conservation, environmental
justice and many more.
They also ran a
campaign specifically for the Gulf oil disaster in
2010, encouraging faith communities to help towards
restoring the Gulf coast.
-
In 2006, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish
Life launched a USA-wide Four-Part Climate Change
Campaign, which aimed to engage the Jewish community
in awareness, advocacy, and concrete action to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
-
Also in 2006, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops
launched the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change,
which tackles issues such as the moral implications
of climate change.
-
In February 2006, the Evangelical Environmental
Network launched the Evangelical Climate Initiative,
originally signed by 90 key evangelical leaders
across the nation.
For more information on the four partners of the NRPE
and their continual campaign and coalition work, please
click on the following links:
NCE Eco-justice
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
Creation Care
In 2000 the US National Council of Churches
(NCC) and the National Religious Partnership for the
Environment pledged to expand their successful
state-by-state effort to form coalitions for education
and advocacy work on global warming across the nation.
Through this sacred gift the NCC – which is
an affiliation of 35 Protestant, Eastern Orthodox and
African-American denominations representing more than 40
million Americans - is building a moral consensus on the
need to combat climate change through action by both
private citizens and public officials.
The
campaign plans included running major training events on
climate change - as well as developing and distributing
statements on climate change by key religious leaders
and engaging the public to advocate urgent action for
the
Kyoto Protocol
on Climate Change.
It was in light of this
Sacred Gift that in 2002 the NCC spearheaded opposition
to President Bush’s decision not to endorse the Kyoto
Protocol: a campaign which saw religious leaders from
all main faiths lobbying the White House.
The NCC continues to push for the USA to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
This Gift extends
more than a decade of activity on climate policy by NCC
member denominations, working both nationally and
internationally (with the World Council of Churches).
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