More than 20 countries, including Mexico, Canada and the UK, have launched a “Powering Past Coal Alliance”, agreeing to phase out existing traditional coal power and place a moratorium on any new traditional coal power stations without operational carbon capture and storage. The alliance was one of the initiatives launched at the Cop23 climate change talks in Bonn, Germany. The US-based Episcopal Church has observer status at the UN and sent two teams of representatives to Germany to “offer worship and prayer to those who are participating . . . to advocate for ways of helping to improve our environment and [to help] the nations of the world to do that work” David Paulsen of the Episcopal News Service takes up the story.
[Episcopal News Service, by David Paulsen] Members of the US-based Episcopal Church have returned home after spending two weeks in Bonn, Germany, representing Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and contributing voices of faith in support of environmental stewardship during the UN climate change summit held there.
The conference, officially known as the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or Cop23, was an annual intergovernmental meeting to focus on global dialogue and action. The Episcopal Church, granted observer status, sent about a dozen Episcopalians to continue the church’s advocacy that began at the previous two conferences.
“The Episcopal Church, through the presiding bishop’s delegation, is taking a very strong presence in the life of these climate summits,” Diocese of California Bishop Marc Andrus told the Episcopal News Service after returning from Cop23. “We’re making strong networks in the faith communities.”
Andrus and his wife, Sheila Andrus, spent the full two weeks in Bonn, while two groups of Episcopalians alternated in participating in the first week and then the second week. They led daily worship services, maintained a booth with information on the church’s environmental advocacy and, on a more limited basis, were able as observers to enter the UN zone where the intergovernmental negotiations were occurring.
- Click Here to read David Paulsen’s full report, on the Episcopal News Service website.
