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| Adrian Shaw addressing the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation held in Jamaica |
I hear that Gaviscon may be the new cure for global warming. This was suggested by the adverts that were interspersed with the live broadcast of the plenary session about ‘Peace with the Earth’ from the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation held in Jamaica during May 2011. Well we may need a lot of it to cool the earth following the recent report from the International Energy Agency. The report suggests that global emissions of carbon dioxide have now topped 30 gigatonnes for the first time. The international recession temporarily slowed the increase in 2010 but we are now back to business as usual.
This is a sobering thought for a number of reasons. There have been sixteen conferences held under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, most recently at Cancun, Mexico in December 2010 and there will be a seventeenth in December 2011 at Durban in South Africa. Sixteen conferences at which the United Nations, national governments of countries around the world and hundreds of other organisations including church representatives have met to try and negotiate agreements to limit the emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The net effect of all this talk has been questionable. There has been no measurable effect on the global emission of greenhouse gases from this prolonged diplomatic process. In fact the rate of growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the largest greenhouse gas by volume, has continued to increase.
Is the conference process useful and should we continue to support it? We probably have no choice but we should be realistic in our expectations. The UN climate change conference circuit has become a media circus with thousands of delegates attending sessions in locations around the world. The irony of this is demonstrated by the Durban conference website, extolling the ease of flying to Durban: “Getting to Durban for COP 17-CMP 7 is easy with the new King Shaka International Airport….”*
We may hope for a binding agreement at Durban that will have an immediate effect but this is highly unlikely to happen. Perhaps we can expect African nations, the African Council of Churches in partnership with the World Council of Churches to demand that the nations of the north to live up to their responsibilities and take action to manage, stabilise and reduce their carbon emissions. This would be a simple and clear messages for churches everywhere to sign up to and one in which Scotland can show leadership. If not, reach for the big bottle of Gaviscon.
[* Thanks to environmental artist Kate Foster for pointing out this absurdity. Her artwork on the subject can be found at her website: http://inthepresenttense.net/2011/06/03/reaching-durban-by-air-is-simple/]
