‘Conscience summit’ stresses ethics of climate change

A “Summit of Conscience for Climate” held at the Unesco Paris headquarters last week brought together dozens of religious leaders from all main faiths and climate activists to stress the ethical aspects of the problem of climate change. The issue will be the focus of a United Nations global conference in the French capital in December.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio community and Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu representatives were among the religious figures. Other participants included former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Irish president Michael Higgins and former Irish president Mary Robinson, who is the UN special envoy for climate change.

In their joint appeal, the participants said climate change called for “new ways of living and acting ... each of us needs to approach these complex challenges from our own individual personal consciences”.

They urged people to join “millions around the world, including the example set recently by His Holiness the Pope, in making climate change and protection of our beautiful planet a personal issue of our beliefs and values”.

Cardinal Turkson said the earth’s climate is “meant for all” and the world’s poor were paying the most for its deterioration. “At stake now is the wellbeing of the earth, our common home,” he said. “A sense of passion is needed.”

Patriarch Bartholomew said scientists and theologians agreed on the need for action. Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee’s interfaith director, blamed climate change on greed. “It is the opportunity for humans to rediscover higher values than materialism and indulgence,” he said. French President François Hollande said: “The cause of our environment’s degradation is our way of life, our consumption.”

He said the French environmentalist Nicolas Hulot, his special envoy for the climate conference, first suggested the meeting of religious leaders. “This is not a simple suggestion in a secular country like France,” he remarked. “It was in this spirit that I read the encyclical [Laudato si’] of Pope Francis.”