Climate Change Action a Moral Imperative for Justice

Wednesday 19th December 2007

In a Youtube video message, delivered last week to religious leaders meeting in the margins of the United Nations Bali Climate Change conference, Dr Williams says that a purely acquisitive approach to the physical world goes against Christian ethical principles:

"The more we see the created order simply in relation to our own wants, our own needs, let alone our own greed and acquisitiveness, the further away we are from God."

Justice, he said, needed to be done across the generations:

"... it's possible for us to act unjustly in relation to future generations; to privilege our own interests and concerns over those of our children and grandchildren. The crisis that is threatened by climate change at the moment is a crisis of that kind. We are being shown, more clearly perhaps than we could have imagined ten or twenty years ago, we are being shown how easy it is to be unjust, unfair to our children and grandchildren."

The fact that measures to combat climate change impacted primarily on poorer societies also raised questions of global economic justice:

"The biggest challenge that faces us in terms of global policy at the moment is how we are to find ways of reducing and controlling climate change without eating into the economic aspirations, the proper aspirations of our poorest societies towards prosperity, respect and dignity."

He said that changing this would involve real sacrifice;

"...because this will mean real challenges to developed and prosperous societies; real challenges to let go of some of their security and some of their prosperity, we should be under no illusion that this will be an easy task. We have to persuade people, and of course we have to persuade ourselves, that sacrifice is necessary and important and, at the end of the day, life-giving.

"When we meet to discuss these matters, we are reminded that we do have choices, that we can make a difference."

Read the transcript below:

Video address of The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, to the religious leaders' gathering at the United Nations Bali Climate Change

Greetings to all the delegates meeting in Bali and especially to members of local Christian churches It's a great privilege to be able to address you on this occasion, this very significant occasion in our thinking and planning about the future of this planet. People sometimes ask why religious communities should be interested in issues around climate change and the environment. And I want to begin by saying a few words about the very character of Christian ethics and morality itself.

For Christians, what's good is the kind of action that allows the style and nature of God's own being, God's own activity, to come through; and God, we're told, looks at the world and sees it as good. He doesn't see it as something which is useful for him, he sees it as something to rejoice in, and when human beings are able to relate to their material environment in that way, they are echoing the way in which God himself relates to creation.  The more we see the created order simply in relation to our own wants, our own needs, let alone our own greed and acquisitiveness, the further away we are from God. And that's why in the Christian church, the sacraments show us as material world used by and for God; the things of this world used as signs of love not as signs of power the signs of control, the signs of separation.  In thinking about any environmental issue, then, from a Christian point of view, we'll be looking for those kinds of activity that reflect the nature of God, that reflect that possibility of a joyful appreciation of nature for what it is.

But that of course is only part of the story. Christian ethics is also fundamentally about justice; it's about the way in which the love and the mercy of God, the gift of God, is spread abroad for all to share; and those kinds of actions which accumulate, which hoard up bits of the world so as to protect us from one another as human beings, those kinds of activity which privilege the interests of one group over another, those are the activities which God judges. So what we have to ask in our present situation is 'What are those actions that God's justice passes sentence upon?'

Now when we begin to think about the justice of God and how we are to do justice in relationship to our environment, two major considerations come up at once.

The first is that the justice of God is a timeless thing. God is not more interested in the past than in the future, not more interested in the future than in the present; God's love and gift is there for all and that means that it's possible for us to act unjustly in relation to future generations; to privilege our own interests and concerns over those of our children and grandchildren. The crisis that is threatened by climate change at the moment is a crisis of that kind. We are being shown, more clearly perhaps than we could have imagined ten or twenty years ago, we are being shown how easy it is to be unjust , unfair to our children and grandchildren, to adopt an attitude and a policy to our material world at this present moment which in effect says 'What really matters is what we need now and not at all what is needed by future generations. We are depriving our children and our grandchildren of a world and that is nothing if not unjust. So in that very broad and general way, we can talk about climate change as an issue that impels us to think about God's justice and how we are to echo it in our world.

You're meeting in a part of the world where this is not academic issue, where rising water levels are already threatening livelihoods and lives themselves. We're looking at a future in ten, twenty years where this issue of rising water levels will more and more be a question of survival in many of the poorer areas of the world. 

In relation to that, though, there's yet another question about how the policies we adopt in order to control and limit the evil effects of climate change themselves can be seen as bearing most heavily on those least able to deal with them. How, in fact, they can be part of a continuing spiral driving people downwards into poverty. The biggest challenge that faces us in terms of global policy at the moment is how we are to find ways of reducing and controlling climate change without eating into the economic aspirations, the proper aspirations of our poorest societies towards prosperity, respect and dignity. The whole issue of how we approach carbon trading, the set of issues around contraction and convergence and agendas like that;' these are issues that have to be thought through very carefully in terms of how the results of policies seeking to control climate change can at the same time work for the good, for the benefit for the neediest of our societies.

It's a complex challenge admittedly, but it's one that urgently needs addressing if we're not to face a continuing future of deep suspicion between societies in our world, between the less prosperous and the more prosperous; if we're to avoid the accusation, sadly well-founded at times, that climate change and related environmental issues are a luxury for the wealthier nations to be preoccupied about while they fail to address the urgent questions of economic development for the poor. Those gathered at Bail and especially those who gather with strong ethical and religious commitments will, I believe, want to hold together those issues.

Ultimately, the control of climate change, ultimately the welfare of the environment is an issue of survival for everybody. It's not a question that can be addressed by one society alone, by one religious tradition alone, by one state alone; it's something that demands collaboration; but collaboration will only happen effectively when people trust one another to be working for each another's interests in the fullest and clearest way possible.

So the challenge that faith communities in particular face at the moment is the challenge of holding up before our governments and our societies, a clear moral vision. First of all a moral vision which insists that we do justice to future generations. Secondly a moral vision which insists that we do justice to all our fellow human beings on the globe at the moment. That we do justice by seeking welfare, peace and stability for poorer societies at the same time as we seek to control the great dangers that surround us environmentally.

And because this will mean real challenges to developed and prosperous societies; real challenges to let go of some of their security and some of their prosperity, we should be under no illusion that this will be an easy task. We have to persuade people, and of course we have to persuade ourselves, that sacrifice is necessary and important and, at the end of the day, life-giving.

And that surely is one of the perspectives that religious commitment can bring. Christianity talks about letting go of our lives in order to save them; and letting go of some of our obsession about security , prosperity and success in order that the whole world may live, in order that the whole human family may flourish, that is something which Christians ought to be underlining as strongly as they possibly can. So let me end by wishing every blessing and success on those involved in its meeting. When we meet to discuss these matters, we are reminded that we do have choices, that we can make a difference. I'm delighted to know that other faith leaders are stepping up to speak on this issue. I'm, delighted to know that so many people want to be part of the decision-making of our governments on this crucial matter. So God bless and sustain you in that task.

© Rowan Williams 2007

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