Faith communities address climate change

Members of all Cardiff's faith communities are invited to gather at City Hall on Tuesday 22nd September to consider the social impact of global warming, and the importance of limiting damage to the environment through cutting carbon consumption.

Cardiff City Council is set to publish a wide ranging carbon reduction strategy in the coming year, and this fact has stimulated the City Centre Churches Together group and Christian Aid Wales to join forces and arrange a conference to consider how this will affect faith communities. Most have buildings for worship and community community activities, Cardiff has more than 250 churches, temples, mosques, schools and community centres. Some are large and costly to maintain, most date from times before energy efficiency was on any architect's agenda.

“The cost of energy is already rising, and future low carbon energy supplies will not be cheap to start with. This fact will raise running costs and questions of sustainability for buildings that will hit all kinds of local community, cultural and spiritual activities in the long term” said the Revd. Keith Kimber, Vicar of St John's City Parish Church. “But before we get there, there is a moral obligation upon all people of faith to look at every possibility for cutting their own carbon consumption, to ensure a future for our children's children.”

Christian Aid has been campaigning on climate change issues for several years, raising awareness of crisis brought about by both drought and flooding in different parts of the world. It is lobbying for a deal at the forthcoming Copenhagen Conference which is both effective and fair for all earth's inhabitants. It is also reminding the public of the possibility of climate change refugees coming to countries less severely hit by climate change. Among the conference participants are a Muslim aid worker with an Islamic organisation working in drought stricken northern Kenya, and a bishop elect from flood prone Bangladesh's tiny Christian minority church.

The Archbishop of Wales welcomed the conference initiative saying : "No-one can afford to be complacent about climate change any more or think it's someone else's problem. We all have to face up to the fact that we have to make radical changes to the way we live. Faith communities have a key role to play in taking a lead, working together and showing by example what each one of us can do to make the future better for us all."

For more information on the Christian Aid Copenhagen Pledge

http://www.christianaid.org.uk/ActNow/Countdown-to-Copenhagen-climate-change/Copenhagen-pledge.aspx

For more about the conference see :

https://sites.google.com/site/cardiffclimateconcern/home

or telephone the Revd. Keith Kimber 029 2022 0375