{"id":6077,"date":"2014-08-21T10:18:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T10:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/?p=6077"},"modified":"2014-08-21T10:28:57","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T10:28:57","slug":"churches-at-the-frontline-of-climate-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/divestment\/churches-at-the-frontline-of-climate-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Churches at the Frontline of Climate Action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photographer:<\/a>

Photographer: Alexander Neureuter, www.neureuters.de<\/p><\/div>\n

Johannes Kapelle has been playing the organ in the Protestant church of Proschim since he was 14. The 78-year-old is actively involved in his community, produces his own solar power and has raised three children with his wife on their farm in Proschim, a small village of 360 inhabitants in Lusatia, Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now the church, his farm, the forest he loves dearly and his entire village is threatened with demolition to leave space for expansion of Swedish energy giant Vattenfall\u2019s lignite (also known as brown coal) operations to feed its power plants. Nearly all of the fuel carbon (99 percent) in lignite is\u00a0converted to CO2<\/sub><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a major greenhouse gas \u2013 during the combustion process.<\/p>\n

For Kapelle, this is inconceivable: \u201cIn Proschim, we\u2019ve managed effortlessly to supply our community with clean energy by setting up a wind park and a biogas plant. Nowadays, it is just irresponsible to expand lignite mining.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

The desolate landscape the giant diggers leave behind stretches as far as the eye can see from just a few hundred metres outside Proschim.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer:<\/a>

Photographer: Christian Huschga<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only going to take about a quarter of a year to burn the entire coal underneath Proschim. But the land is going to be destroyed forever. You won\u2019t even be able to enter vast areas of land anymore because it will be prone to erosion. You won\u2019t be able to grow anything on that soil anymore either. No potatoes, no tomatoes, nothing,\u201d says Kappelle.<\/p>\n

Some 70 km northeast of Proschim, Protestant pastor Mathias Berndt also sees his community under threat. His church in Atterwasch has been around for 700 years and even survived the Thirty Years\u2019 War in the 17th century. Now it is supposed to make way for Vattenfall\u2019sJ\u00e4nschwalde Nord\u00a0<\/em>open cast lignite mine.<\/p>\n

The 64-year-old has been Atterwasch\u2019s pastor since 1977 and refuses to accept that his community will be destroyed: \u201cAs Christians, we have a responsibility to cultivate and protect God\u2019s creation. That\u2019s what it says in the Bible. We\u2019re pretty good at cultivating but protection is lacking. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been trying to stop the destruction of nature since the days of the German Democratic Republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVattenfall\u2019s plans to expand its mines have given this fight a new dimension,\u201d Berndt adds. \u201cThis is now also about preventing our forced displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berndt is currently involved in organising a huge protest on August 23 \u2013 a\u00a0human chain<\/a>\u00a0connecting a German and Polish village threatened by coal mining in the region. He has also been pushing his church to step up its efforts to curb climate change.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer:<\/a>

Photographer: Christian Huschga<\/p><\/div>\n

As a result, his regional synod has positioned itself against new coal mines, lignite power plants and the demolition of further villages. It is also offering churches advice on energy savings and deploying renewable energy. The parsonage in Atterwasch, for example, has been equipped with solar panels.<\/p>\n

Despite Germany\u2019s ambitions for an energy transition, its so-called\u00a0Energiewende<\/em>, the country\u2019s CO2<\/sub>emissions have been rising again for the past two years, for the first time since the country\u2019s reunification. This is primarily due to Germany\u2019s coal-fired power plants, and brown coal power stations in particular.<\/p>\n

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently confirmed that it is still possible to limit global warming below 2\u00b0 C. But there is only a limited CO2<\/sub>\u00a0budget left to meet this goal and avert runaway climate change.<\/p>\n

The IPCC estimates that investments in fossil fuels would need to fall by 30 billion dollars a year, while investments in low-carbon electricity supply would have to increase by 147 billion dollars a year.<\/p>\n

As a result, more and more faith leaders are calling for divestment from fossil fuels. One of the most powerful advocates has been Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former South African Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, who recently\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0for an \u201canti-apartheid style boycott of the fossil fuel industry\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tutu\u2019s call to action has been echoed by U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, who has\u00a0urged religious leaders<\/a>\u00a0to pull their investments out of fossil fuel companies.<\/p>\n

\"Photographer:<\/a>

Photographer: Christian Huschga<\/p><\/div>\n

Many churches have taken this step already. Last month, the World Council of Churches, a fellowship of over 300 churches representing some 590 million people in 150 countries, decided to phase out its holdings in fossil fuels and encouraged its members to do the same.<\/p>\n

The Quakers in the United Kingdom, the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, the United Church of Christ in the United States, and many more regional and local churches have also joined the divestment movement.<\/p>\n

The Church of Sweden was among the first to rid itself of oil and coal investments. It increased investments in energy-efficient and low-carbon projects instead, which also improved its portfolio\u2019s financial performance.<\/p>\n

Gunnela Hahn, head of ethical investments at the Church of Sweden\u2019s central office explains: \u201cWe realised that many of our largest holdings were within the fossil industry. That catalysed the idea of more closely aligning investments with the ambitious work going on in the rest of the church on climate change. \u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, from the frontline, pastor Berndt calls for putting ethics first: \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing today is the result of putting economic thinking at the forefront. Our mantra is to just continue doing things as long as they generate profit. We need to counteract this trend with ethical thinking. We need to do what\u2019s right!\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published by\u00a0IPS News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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