[ad_1]
Seven Catholic groups based on five continents announced on Tuesday their intention to divest their financial interests from fossil fuels, the largest and broadest joint statement to date within the church and the second such effort this year. .
The decision to divest came on the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, which also marks the last day of the Christian celebration of the Season of Creation, and a few hours before the European Union votes on the ratification of the ‘Paris Agreement, establishing the global agreement on tackling climate change to enter into force.
In addition to divestment pledges made, student groups at five Jesuit college campuses in the United States planned actions on Tuesday urging their respective schools to follow suit.
The divestment pledges included the first Catholic diocese to do so – the Diocese of Umuarama in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil – as well as the Hong Kong-based Missionary Society of St. Columban and the Jesuits in the province. from English Canada.
“Climate change is already affecting poor and marginalized communities around the world, through drought, sea level rise, famine and extreme weather conditions. We are called to take a stand, â€said the Jesuit father. Peter Bisson, Jesuit Provincial of English Canada, who will stop future investments in fossil fuels and withdraw them from his current portfolio within five years.
The Bishop of Umuarama, João Mamede, called the divestment “a practical way to achieve” what Pope Francis calls in his encyclical “Laudato Yes’, on Taking care of our common home.
“We cannot welcome and continue to allow economic interests which seek exorbitant profits before the well-being of people, to destroy biodiversity and ecosystems, nor continue to dictate our energy model based on fossil fuels,” said the bishop.
An American institution: SSM Health Care, with 20 hospitals in four states, has joined the divestment campaign, which has said it will divest its funds from coal.
SSM Health, based in Saint-Louis, founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, is one of the 10 largest Catholic hospital systems in the country. It first announced in April its intention to sell its financial stakes to coal production companies and increase investments in others “which generate a measurable beneficial social or environmental impact.”
Along with divestment, SSM Health joined the Healthier Hospitals Initiative and pledged to increase recycling, reduce medical waste and reduce energy use by 3%.
The joint divestment announcement, coordinated by the Global Catholic Climate Movement, came on the feast of St. Francis, a day more traditionally associated with blessing animals. In recent years, Catholic groups concerned with climate change have taken steps to associate the day honoring the patron saint of ecology, as well as animals, with raising awareness of man-made threats to and with the planet, the people who inhabit it.
Earlier this year, the World Catholic Climate Movement, a network of more than 300 organizations around the world, formed a divestment task force to help Catholic dioceses, congregations and organizations explore the feasibility of such a financial measure.
The movement to divest from fossil fuels, which dates back to 2012, seeks to move the world away from carbon-emitting energy sources like coal, oil and natural gas and towards cleaner alternatives. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change, accounting for more than two-thirds of global emissions – largely from the combustion of fossil fuels and industrial processes.
Last October, before the COP 21 which culminated in the Paris Agreement, the heads of six continental Catholic episcopal conferences called for “the end of the era of fossil fuels”.
Following: “What happens after the coal? Encyclical Comes at a Tough Time for Industryâ€(November 10, 2015)
According to 350.org’s Go Fossil Free project, nearly 600 institutions have given away $ 3.4 trillion from the fossil fuel industry, with faith groups accounting for the largest share (24%). Notables include the Church of England, the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation.
Much of the movement to divest from fossil fuels has started on college campuses. Students from five Jesuit schools held events on Tuesday urging their schools and other Jesuit institutions to link the values ​​of the Society of Jesus to responses to climate change, including an investment review.
Student actions, organized through a coordinating group called the Jesuit Divestment Network, are expected to take place at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., Loyola University of New Orleans and the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Students at Georgetown University, where previous actions led the school to disengage from coal, held a solidarity event with fellow Jesuit schools.
Other communities included in Tuesday’s divestment announcement included two from Italy – the Federation of Christian Organizations for International Volunteering and the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco – Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Milan and Naples – and the Society of presentation from Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Sr. Marlette Black, President of the Presentation Society, said investments in fossil fuels come “at the expense of the environment, human rights, public safety and local communities.” … The healing of the planet will only happen by taking care of the Earth and all of the community of life.
The Presentation Society follows four other religious orders in the Pacific region who made public divestment plans in June to commemorate the first anniversary of Laudato Si ‘. The publication of the encyclical last year opened up the idea of ​​divestment more widely for many Catholics, where previously other faiths and secular institutions had largely taken the lead.
Prior to the encyclical’s publication, the University of Dayton and Georgetown announced divestment plans. The Sisters of Loreto voted for divestment a month after the encyclical.
In a press conference on the pope’s message for the September 1 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Cardinal Peter Turkson said that to keep the global average temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), compared to pre-industrial levels, as stated in the Paris Agreement, “will require a complete shift away from fossil fuels to renewables by around 2070.” A more ambitious timetable would be needed to reach the 1.5 ° C target also included in the climate agreement.
“It is a capital enterprise. But, as a society, have we really thought about what that means and what it will take to get there? ” He asked.
Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said it was up to citizens to demand that the goals of the Paris Agreement be met, stressing part of Laudato Si ‘ where Francis said consumer movements, such as boycotts, can “prove effective in changing the way businesses operate, forcing them to take into account their environmental footprint and their production methods.”
“The same logic drives the movement to divest from fossil fuels,†Turkson said.
Another line of Laudato Si ‘, paragraph 165, has become a rallying cry for much of the Catholic divestment movement: “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also petroleum and, in a less to be replaced gradually without delay.
While conservationists insist on the “without delay†aspect, those within the church leadership, including Turkson, have sought to soften the pope’s words that Francis was sensitive to parts of the world. world economically dependent on fossil fuels and its intention was not to put masses of people out of work overnight.
The Vatican has so far not discussed a possible divestment, Turkson said RCN in June.
The global effort to tackle climate change gained momentum on Tuesday when the the European Union voted to approve the ratification of the Paris Agreement, the climate agreement concluded in December by 195 United Nations member states. The vote allows every EU member state to ratify the deal, pushing it beyond the 55 countries representing 55% of the global emissions threshold needed for the deal to enter into force.
[Brian Roewe is an NCR staff writer. His email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @BrianRoewe.]
[ad_2]
