Church in the World

Poor hit hardest by climate change

United States

POOR communities are most vulnerable to climate change and will pay the price of delaying dealing with it, religious leaders told a Senate committee last week.

Representatives of several Churches debated the moral implications of climate change, highlighting the persistent disagreement that still obstructs action on the issue in Washington.

John L. Carr, an official of the United States bishops' conference, said: "We see with our own eyes that poor people in our country and in poor countries often lack the resources and capacity to adapt and avoid the negative consequences of climate change.

"Their lives, homes, children and work are most at risk. Ironically the poor and vulnerable generally contribute much less to the problem but are more likely to pay the price of neglect and delay."

Leaders of several other faith groups and denominations - including Jews, Episcopalians and Evangelical Christians - echoed his view, and insisted that the time for debate had expired.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and a former oceanographer, said: "While many in the faith community represented here today may disagree on a variety of issues, in the area of global warming we are increasingly of one mind. Inaction on our part is the most costly of all courses of action for those living in poverty."

But the heads of a number of conservative Christian groups argued that climate change activists unfairly advantage the needs of the environment over those of poor people, and that curbing carbon emissions would hurt the developing world.