CHRISTIAN groups have welcomed the UK’s new emissions-reduction pledge, made by the Prime Minister at the COP29 climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan (News, 8 November), on Tuesday.

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, all countries are required to submit new climate action plans, known as Nationally Determined Contributions, by February 2025, and the UK is the first G7 country to outline one. Sir Keir Starmer, who was at the summit with both the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, and the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said that the UK would reduce its carbon emissions by 81 per cent by 2035 from 1990 levels.

“Let me be clear. There is no national security, there is no economic security, there is no global security, without climate security. And this is a huge opportunity, for investment, for UK businesses, for British workers, if we act now to lead the world in the economy of tomorrow,” he said.

CAFOD’s lead on climate-change policy, Liz Cronin, said: “It is encouraging that the UK has sent its top team to COP this year. Likewise, the new target to reduce UK emissions by 81 per cent follows the expert advice of the independent Climate Change Committee and sets a strong example for other countries to follow.”

Christian Aid’s chief of UK advocacy, Sophie Powell, also welcomed the pledge, and said that the focus would now turn to the issue of climate finance to help poor and vulnerable countries. “Emissions reductions are only one side of the coin. If the UK really wants to claim the mantle of a climate leader it needs to deliver on public finance to support the ongoing efforts of vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change, and to ensure the energy transition is fully funded.”

People gather in prayer at the Faith pavilion of COP29 on Tuesday, for a conversation in the spirit of talanoa (inclusive and transparent) dialogue

The big issue on the table in Baku is that of climate finance to help developing countries deal with the impact of climate change.

In Baku, the call for more climate funds, and weaning the world off fossil fuels, has been backed by religious leaders in a joint Call to Action, signed by 113 organisations and individual faith leaders.

The Primate of Central America, the Most Revd Julio Murray, chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network and moderator of the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, said: “God calls us to take good care of the divine gifts of land, water, and other resources. The biblical concept of Jubilee calls for rest of the land — for the liberation of land from exploitation, extraction, and drilling — to allow regeneration and renewal of our only planetary home. We know that the clock is ticking on climate change. We need to put a stop to fossil-fuel extraction and production if we are to prevent the worst consequences of climate change.”

Elsewhere, 27 Christian institutions from around the world have announced they are disinvesting from fossil-fuel holdings on the basis that profiting from the harm caused by climate change is morally unacceptable. Over the past ten years, 570 religious institutions have stopped investing in fossil-fuel companies, including the national investing bodies of the Church of England. The latest list of disinvesting organisations includes ten Roman Catholic dioceses (seven in Italy, two in France, and one in Ireland), nine RC religious orders, two Church of England dioceses (Guildford and Blackburn), an RC university in Canada, and the Christian Associations of Italian Workers.

Clare Fussell, the Bright Now campaign director at the charity Operation Noah, which helped to co-ordinate the latest round of disinvestment, said: “Churches and faith communities around the world are saying what politicians and fossil-fuel executives are often unwilling to say, which is that burning oil, gas, and coal is destroying our common home.

“But more than just talking, faith communities are taking action, treating fossil-fuel investments in the same way that they treat tobacco, arms, gambling, and other activities that do not align with their values. Many faith groups are now investing in climate solutions instead of continuing to subsidise the dying and destructive fossil-fuel industry — an industry which refuses to change at the pace and scale required.”

As world leaders now departing Baku, the talks will be turned over to the negotiating teams to reach agreement on a new long-term climate-finance goal, to be set by the end of the summit.

Joe Ware is a senior climate journalist at Christian Aid.