Ways of Contributing to The Church of England's Seven-year plan on Climate
Change and the Environment and the 10:10 Commitment
The Seven year plan was commissioned by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Bishop of London, Leslie
Charteris, and followed on from work by the Church of England over thirty
years on issues of environmental care. This included the important work
of the SHRINKING THE FOOTPRINT Task Group.
Archbishop Rowan Williams says in the summary 'for the Church of England
in the 21st Century, good ecology is not an optional extra but a matter
of justice. It is therefore central to what it means to be a Christian'.
The target set by the Seven Year Plan aims to reduce the carbon footprint
of the Church's buildings and operations by 80% by 2050, in line with
the recent Climate Change Bill, with intermediate targets along the way.
The 10:10 campaign is a commitment for organisations and individuals to
reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in the use of: grid electricity,
fossil fuel use, vehicle use, air travel.
Leeds City Council have signed up to the campaign as have many individuals.
Eco-congregations is a specific organisation for enabling churches to
reduce their carbon footprint. However these targets will only be achieved
with the support of members of the organisations concerned and in addition
the overall Government target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions
by 2050 will only be met if we as individuals change our current live
styles.
Here are suggestions that would enable us to do this;
1. To take part in an eco cell programme.
This involves a group of people working together on ways of reducing their
energy consumption in the following areas:-
Waste; shopping and food, energy use in the home, water, transport.
Many of us took part in a similar programme
run by Global Action Plan (GAP) after our Environment Festival three years
ago.
2. Use the parish magazine to set up a mutual
exchange of ways to cut energy consumption. This could cover the whole
range of ideas from articles about individual reader's knowledge and experience
of specific energy saving strategies, eg on putting up solar panels or
solar voltaic cells, to the more homely advice about the sort of waste
saving tips advocated during WW2.
3. An off shoot of the above could be to
set up an articles wanted column in the magazine alongside an articles
needed column.
Jill Vogler
