Gore backs 'moral' stand of top church leader on climate

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore, in a speech to UN climate change talks in Bali that received strong applause from delegates, has echoed a call by the Archbishop of Canterbury to confront the issue as a moral one, reports ENI Daily News Service.

"It is a moral imperative, you have the capacity to act," Gore told the UN conference on 13 December during a speech in which he said the United States was the principal barrier to reaching agreement on a new international pact to deal with climate change.

"We have everything we need, except political will," said Gore in his speech. "But that is a renewable resource," he said, regarding the will to act.

Gore's speech coincided with reports that attaining a mandate to steer negotiations for the next two years on a post-2012 climate change deal could be blocked by the US administration's objection to a firm commitment on cutting emissions of climate-change inducing gases.

In a speech on 11 December relayed by video at a church-related meeting during the 3-14 December Bali talks, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, had urged faith communities to hold up a "clear moral vision" to governments and societies.

Senior international officials at the talks interviewed by Ecumenical News International said they would welcome a more proactive stance by faith-based organizations on climate change.

"In my view there are three ways to reach people: through their wallets, their health and their soul," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, of Algeria, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. "The first two are certainly current, the third has yet to be achieved. I would warmly welcome a far higher level of engagement by faith groups in biodiversity issues."

The head of the British delegation to the Bali talks, Chris Dodswell, said his government continued to support the formation of a global coalition of faith communities to campaign on climate change.

In April, the then British environment minister, David Miliband, who shortly afterwards became the foreign minister, issued a call for a faiths' climate change coalition when he addressed a Vatican seminar on climate change and development. Miliband had said in his Vatican speech that an "ecological conversion" was needed to mobilise governments, businesses and citizens across the world to act.

"Climate change is not just an environmental or economic issue, it is a moral and ethical one," Miliband said. "It is not just an issue for politicians or businesses, it is an issue for the world’s faith communities."

New iPad POLL! VOTE NOW! Will you buy new iPad?

[01/03/2008]

Print Version