Remarks by the General Secretary During Faith Leaders’ Summit on Climate Change

A.        PRELIMINARIES

Rev John McCullough, Chief Executive Officer of Church World Service and Global Climate Change Ambassador; Rev Dr. Andre Karamanga, General Secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches; All faith leaders present today from the different parts of our lovely continent, Brothers and Sisters.

It is my great honour to welcome you to this Pan African Faith Leaders’ Summit on Climate Justice, now that I am by and large your host being the National Climate Change Ambassador for Kenya. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedules to be in this   important meeting.

B.        FAITH LEADERS AND CLIMATE JUSTICE

The reason we are here, brothers and sisters, is to reflect on the issue of climate justice and our role as faith leaders. This is in recognition of the fact that by nature, the people of Africa, and indeed all humanity, are highly spiritual. We innately recognize that there is more to life than the physical world we live in and interact with.

We all, as human by nature appreciate that there is a spiritual realm and power from which we originated. Since we are representative of those who provide leadership to the people in this important aspect of life, we must also lend our hand and voice in matters concerning the environment since this planet is where we all live. The energy and effort we put into campaigning for life in heaven should match the energy we put into ensuring that the environment here on earth is good. This is the primary reason we as faith leaders must fully engage this matter of climate justice: the earth is our home until we die and go into the eternal abode.

But more than this, Brothers and Sisters, is the realization that God our Creator is Himself very concerned about the environment we live in, which should inculcate in each of one us a similar concern.

I aver this because when we go back to the beginning, God shows the importance of the environment by the way He ordered the process of creation.

We read in Genesis chapter 1 from verse one that:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”.

I wish us to keenly note, brothers and sisters, that though people are important in the eyes of God, they are the only part of creation that God wants to relate with, yet at creation God started with the environment, not the people.

Indeed the rest of Genesis Chapter One all the way to verse 25, God was creating the environment and setting the climate and seasons. And at the end of that, the Bible makes that glorious declaration:

“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” (Genesis 1: 30)

So, as human beings and especially as faith leaders, can we have a higher calling than to maintain the goodness of the creation?

C.        DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

The sad story of humanity is that though God made the earth very attractive, human beings have, over the centuries, either  individually or collectively, continued to destroy the very earth that God gave us to live on and take care of. We wantonly pollute the air and the water, destroy forests and wildlife, and greedily over-exploit natural resources beyond their capacity to naturally replenish.

The result of our actions has been the increased suffering of people across the world as their climates change and their lands are no longer able to sustain them. In the course of this Conference, we shall delve more deeply into the manifestations of climate change so I do not need to expound more at this point.

But suffice it to say that as human beings, we are slowly but surely making planet earth uninhabitable.

If we do not take collective and individual action, we can with certainty predict that in the coming years, life on earth will be very difficult for the next generation, and that means our children. The time for remedial action is now.

D.        A CASE FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

Brothers and sisters, it is my desire to share a few thoughts on what we need to do so as to play our part in the journey of climate justice.

First, we need to push for equity in the process. By this I mean that the persons most responsible for destroying the environment should also bear the greatest responsibility in mitigating the effects of their actions. As things currently stand, it is the people living in the so called third world counties, who pay the greatest price for climate change: It is our brothers and sisters here in Africa who sleep hungry because their lands don’t produce enough food; who sleep cold because their environs don’t produce enough materials to make good houses; who don’t go to school because their meagre resources are used up purchasing food, and the list is endless.

We must not forget that when  sudden rains come in the West, they have helicopters and sophisticated boats to rescue their people from flooded areas. In Africa, our people die in flood waters because we can’t even afford the resources to build dams and dykes along rivers. And when droughts caused by climate change come, the world is entertained with pictures of emaciated Africans begging for food, while in the West droughts are sneered at since they have stockpiled reserve foods which they produced with resources shipped  from Africa.

This inequality of response is made grossly evil by the reminder that Africans contribute only a negligible amount of the greenhouse gases that result in global warming.

By Climate Justice, we therefore mean that the countries of the world should put more money into a mitigation kitty where contributions are designed directly proportional to the level of greenhouse gases emittance by the country. On the other hand, allocation of the funds for mitigation actions should be inversely proportional to the greenhouse gases emittance so that those who emit the least, get the most funds.

This is one of the messages that we as faith leaders of Africa need to send to the 21^st Conference of Parties, known as COP21.

The other message we need to take to COP21, Brothers and Sisters, is that countries around the world must not wait for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) before acting on climate change. There must be a very strong message that each individual country, must take action so as to safeguard its people from the effects of climate change and help them to adapt.

We must especially help our political leaders in Africa to recognize that though we can blame the western nations for a myriad of problems we face here, we are responsible for finding ways of moving forward. It is quite foolhardy to sit back and wait for the same people who exploited us in the past to come and remedy their actions. We as Africans must take charge of our destiny and plan our future survival.

We must carry this message we need to carry back to our countries and continue preaching it even beyond COP21.

Lastly, my brothers and sisters, I wish to urge all of us to participate in this summit with an attitude of getting a message to carry back home to our fellow faith leaders. Let us take to them, the message that we must engage and address the climate justice issue.

Specifically, I propose that we encourage our fellow faith leaders to take various actions that include:

One, speaking about climate justice during sermons and other public addresses so that as many of our people as possible get educated on the causes, effects and solutions of climate change

Two, advocating community and political leaders at all levels to initiate local-level climate change mitigation actions so as to prop up the communities and protect them from further suffering.

Three, praying for God’s divine intervention on the matter of climate and also praying for the leaders so that they have wisdom to do what is best for our people.

E.         CONCLUSION

And so I conclude by thanking you once again for accepting to come and be part of this great forum. I assure you of my individual commitment, as well as that of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, to the fight for climate justice in our country and beyond. It is for this reason that the Council has in the last few months worked tirelessly to mobilize Kenyans across the board to sign the Climate Justice petitions that we shall discuss in detail during this summit.

May God bless all of us richly and may He endow us with a double portion of wisdom during this summit and after we return to our homes.

Thank you.