As Canadians we are part of the problem of climate change. As people of faith, we can be part of the solution. God calls us to love and care for all the Earth. To respond to the human and ecological devastation of climate change with love and justice.
CPJ is encouraged by the range of emissions-reduction measures contained in Canada’s new climate plan. Still, it is just a starting point. The work now begins to bring Canada’s plan in line with the spirit and the letter of the Paris Agreement.
CPJ has set up a online action in partnership with the CRC’s Centre for Public Dialogue.
Urge your MP to
support increased climate ambition and clean energy policies! As an expression of love for God’s awesome creation, tell your MP that you, as a person of faith, want meaningful climate action – consistent with the principles of the Paris Agreement – to reduce GHG emissions and address climate change.
3 steps you, and your church, can take towards climate justice at any time:
1. Acknowledge: learn about & meditate on the need for climate justice
Meaningful action on climate change grows from understanding its causes, accepting personal responsibility for our contributions, and seeking awareness of its negative impacts on those who are most vulnerable to its impacts.
2. Act: reduce your environmental impact
Each of us has a moral and personal responsibility to live with integrity towards ecological reconciliation with all of Creation.
- Reduce your GHG emissions using 9 ideas from CPJ as well as Greening Sacred Spaces and the Carbon Footprint calculator.
- Divest from carbon-based assets and invest in clean technology. Read “Divest and Reinvest Now! The Religious Imperative for Fossil Fuel Divestment and Reinvestment in a Clean Energy Future,” by the Rev. Fletcher Harper of GreenFaith. Engage your faith community in a discussion about divestment using background papers and discussion guides available at Fossil Free Faith.
- Conduct a Green Audit, and improve the energy efficiency of your faith community’s infrastructure. Greening Sacred Spaces offers Green Audits as a fee for service, and on their website you’ll find resources on improving the energy-efficiency of religious buildings, organizing a church “Green Team” to facilitate greening, and a “Green Guide” with other suggestions on “how to live your faith and walk more lightly on the planet.”
3. Advocate: engage with Canadian Political leaders
Living out the call to care for the environment requires both individual-level and legislative-level changes. While personal greening initiatives do slow environmental degradation and enhance the way we see our relationship with creation, they are inadequate if we don’t also work for societal and public policy reform.
- Every year during Lent, CPJ organizes Give it up for the Earth!, a Lenten faith-in-action campaign to increase climate justice in Canada.The campaign is centred on a postcard that includes a pledge to individual climate action, and a call for more far-reaching national climate policy.
- Read and share the ecumenical statement, “On Promoting Climate Justice and Ending Poverty in Canada.” This call for federal action on climate change and poverty was coordinated by the Canadian Council of Churches in September 2015 and endorsed by more than 65 signatories (including CPJ, Canadian Christian, Sikh, and Buddhist leaders).
- Use CPJ’s Advocacy Toolkit to make your voice heard.
