Support a fair Canadian response to climate change
In Canada and the U.S., we have a responsibility to not only lower our own greenhouse gas emissions, but we have a moral obligation to support people in countries who have significantly lower emissions yet face disproportionately higher impacts.
We need your support to help make this happen.
For Christians, reconciliation is at the center of our work. We join in God’s mission to make all things new – envisioning communities worldwide in right relationship with God, one another, and creation (Col. 1:20; Rev. 21:5). Climate change challenges this work by increasing inequality and impacting people already facing great difficulties and injustices. But it also presents an opportunity to work for a just peace by responding in a fair way that supports everyone.
Climate change is a global issue which impacts all of us and requires action from all countries. Climate change has resulted in worsened natural disasters, fewer harvests, stress on water resources, reduced income, food insecurity, and an increased need to migrate. These changes affect families and communities around the world, especially the most vulnerable, including women and girls.
As Christians, we care about climate change because we love people, and we love God’s good creation. We have the responsibility to care for creation – today and for future generations. As Jesus’ disciples, we are called to live constructively, peacefully and in interdependence with the natural world (Genesis 1:26, Genesis 2:15).
For Canada, our role in responding to the impacts of climate change extends beyond our borders.
Canada has joined global climate agreements that are based on the idea that countries with a larger historic carbon emissions and a stronger economy should play a greater role in addressing climate change. These agreements, like the Paris Agreement, recognize that all countries need to work together to tackle climate change, but the level responsibility isn’t the same for everyone. Countries that have released more greenhouse gases into the environment need to take greater responsibility for their role in causing climate change. For instance, Canada’s emissions are 15.4 tons per person, while Zimbabwe’s are only 0.8 tons per person.
To meet our international commitments and contribute our fair share of global climate action, we believe Canada must engage in a balanced approach that:
- reduces our greenhouse gas emissions by 60% below 2005 levels by 2030, in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
- supports communities around the world adjust and adapt to the impacts of climate change now. Canada must meet our Paris Agreement commitment to invest at least 50% of climate finance in adaptation.
- meets Canada’s financial commitments. Based on Canada’s emissions and wealth relative to other donor countries, Canada must scale up its climate finance to meet our fair share of global climate finance, USD$4 billion annually.
