Church Interest in Climate Change-

 A member of the Catholic Climate Action Steering Committee gives the readers of the Catholic Times some thoughts on Climate Change and what we can do.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a specialized agency of the United Nations, announced that human influence is the cause of climate change in 2023 and that carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has reached its highest level in the past 2 million years. In addition, it was announced that a 1.5°C rise in global temperature has been advanced from the previously predicted period of 2023 to 2052 to the near future, 2021 to 2040, making short-term response important. We are entering an era of global boiling, not global warming.

In a global climate crisis, the present government is going backward. The target for the share of renewable energy generation, which is important in the transition from fossil fuel energy, was lowered from 30.2% to 21.8% by the previous government. In addition, among this year's budget increases and decreases, the project with the largest budget reduction in the 'Industrial Small and Medium Business Energy sector' was the 'Renewable Energy New Industry Revitalization Program', which decreased by a whopping 463 billion won (-40.3% compared to 2023).

What about the Church? Last year, Pope Francis announced the apostolic exhortation “Praise God” (Laudate Deum) targeting the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28). Through this recommendation, the COP28 General Assembly called for an effective and binding energy transition centered on renewable energy and a binding policy agreement for the elimination of fossil fuels. However, as a result of the COP28 conference, a decisive plan for reducing important greenhouse gas emissions was missing. It focuses only on reducing coal power generation, rather than a phased reduction, and omits reductions in major emission sources such as oil and gas due to the influence of oil-producing countries.

It appears that Pope Francis is working alone to respond to the climate crisis in the Catholic Church. Of course, since the publication of the encyclical “Laudato Si’,” the “Laudato Si Movement,” a climate movement group of the church in solidarity with Korean Catholic Climate Action, has been active.  However, the movement of local churches appears to be minimal. 

In 2020, the Korean Church also presented practical methods to protect our common home, Earth, by announcing a special pastoral letter, ‘Before Our Crying Mother Earth’, and practical guidelines following the 7-year journey of ‘Laudato Si’. However, except for a few dioceses, that have declared carbon neutrality, news of efforts and actions to respond to the climate crisis are rare.

There was a general meeting of Korean Catholic Climate Action not long ago. At the meeting, activists read the 10 oriented values of the ‘Laudato Si’ movement and shared how they felt called to the climate movement. In an era of global boiling, we seek hope by sharing the 10 values of the ‘Laudato Si’ movement to respond to the climate crisis in local churches.

1. Grounded in faith. 2. Committed to spiritual transformation. 3. Caring for one another. 4. Being Prophetic. 5. Taking an integral approach. 6. Cultivating unity in diversity. 7. Being in the  Church and the world. 8. Building Bridges. 9. Embracing contemplation in action. 10. Living in hope. 

"I ask everyone to accompany this pilgrimage of reconciliation with the world that is our home and to help make it more beautiful because that commitment has to do with our personal dignity and highest values"(Praise God paragraph 69).