Meet Our Deanery Eco Church Champion
Ben Niblett is our Runnymede Deanery Eco Church Champion – co-leader (with Climate Champion Clem Jones) of the Deanery Greenery network in Runnymede. He’s kindly provided us with a little pen profile of himself:
“I'd always cared about the environment and about poverty and injustice, and I knew climate change was important, but it wasn't till I started working as a campaigner at Tearfund in 2005 that I realised how urgent it was and that it was the biggest issue of poverty of our times. I'm still at Tearfund, now coordinating an international campaigning movement called Renew Our World. I love Eco Church because it's so holistic, looking at each part of church life, and because it's flexible enough to work for churches of
different sizes and in different situations, and it's hopeful, it focuses you on what you can do together next - and I like the Eco Diocese aspect too. I'm a member of Christ Church, Virginia Water and live in Egham with my wife Kate and three teenage children; the oldest is off to university this year.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Ben Niblett
“Net Zero by 2030” Update
A recommendation from the UK Committee on Climate Change’s (UKCCC) First Report in 2008 said that the UK ‘should aim to reduce . . . greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming by at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050’. But by 2019, the UKCCC published Net Zero: The UK’s Contribution to Stopping Global Warming, which recommended ‘a new emissions target for the UK: net zero greenhouse gases by 2050’. The UK Government did pass legislation to this end in 2019, and subsequently, through the (delayed) COP26 this November, it hopes to persuade other world governments to do the same. Furthermore, the UK Government claims to have ‘already laid the groundwork to end the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050’ through published strategies such as its Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy. However, as the BBC’s Adam Flemming put to COP26 President-designate Alok Sharma last month, ‘there are lots of things that have been promised that haven’t quite happened yet: so, a Hydrogen Strategy, which we’re told we might get this month; a Heat & Buildings Strategy, which will be all about people’s boilers and heat pumps . . . and the Treasury were meant to do this review about the overall cost to the economy of going to net zero that was meant to come out this Spring – it’s still not here yet’ (COP-portunity Knocks episode of BBC’s podcast Newscast). To cite Christian charity Operation Noah’s observation (in their report ‘Paris Compliant or Paris Defiant’ on how the UK church is contributing to climate change through its investments), ‘Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change, has said that the UN climate talks in Glasgow (COP26) mark the time by which the UK “must have put its own house in order… not just setting a net zero target, but making credible plans to meet it”’ (p7). Given this challenging task, Christians would do well to make a concerted effort to pray for the UK Government, Alok Sharma, and other governments’ representatives ahead of COP26.
Clem Jones, Runnymede Deanery Climate Champion
Joint statement on climate change by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch
For the first time, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion have jointly warned of the urgency of environmental sustainability, its impact on poverty and the importance of global cooperation. Read more here.
You can listen to the Archbishop of Canterbury being interviewed on The Today programme (BBC Sounds here, at 08:10.)
Church Bells for Climate Change
Nation-wide including participating towers in the deanery
Saturday, 30 October, 6pm
Listen out to church bells that evening: Bells have traditionally been rung to mark significant moments, both in times of celebration, such as victory in war, and as a warning of impending danger, such as invasion. A number of local CofE churches will be among those joining in the Ring Out for Climate solidarity initiative on the eve of COP26 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) which will take place in Glasgow between 31 October and 12 November.
Please pray for the conference, too.