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Anglicans to take biodiversity campaign to COP16

17 October 2024

Alamy

A COP16 booth is displayed during the Petronio Alvarez festival in Cali, Colombia, in August

A COP16 booth is displayed during the Petronio Alvarez festival in Cali, Colombia, in August

COUNTRIES should oblige businesses to disclose their impact on nature and should use the wisdom of indigenous people to help to restore biodiversity, Anglican representatives have urged before this month’s United Nations summit.

At the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16, in Colombia, which will run from 21 October to 1 November, Anglican Communion representatives will be present, including young people from Kenya, El Salvador, Brazil, and Tonga. The group will be led by the the Church of England’s lead bishop for the environment, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher.

He said: “Biodiversity loss is one of the major environmental crises impacting our planet today. Whether it’s habitat destruction, pollution, the erosion of soils, or the impact of exploitation and conflict on natural resources, many Anglican churches around the world are serving communities directly impacted by issues which cause nature loss.

“It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis, but, at COP16, we want to speak words of hope. We will implore governments to work together in achieving a joint action plan — but we will also express our deep commitment as Anglicans in playing our part in global action.”

The Communion has also published a report setting out the five areas on which, it says, national governments need to act to protect and increase biodiversity. These include working with faith groups to restore ecosystems; stopping nature loss and slowing climate change, which can be a driver of conflict; increasing funding to developing countries for nature restoration; mandating that businesses disclose their impact on nature; and learning from indigenous ways of life that balance ecological and financial growth to ensure that people live within natural boundaries.

In his foreword to the report, Bishop Usher writes: “When a species becomes extinct by human action, we damage, harm, and reduce the diversity of God’s creation. This can only be grievous to God who loves everything into being. We have failed in our calling, not only to take care of creation, but to live in harmony with our fellow creatures.

“We want to express our global commitment as Anglicans to be part of the solution, demonstrating the impact of faith actors in restoring and safeguarding God’s world.”

The report, Choosing Hope: Anglican joint action on nature loss, also suggests ways in which churches can help biodiversity and address climate change. These include finding out how banks or pension funds invest and considering a change to a green bank; integrating nature in the liturgy and worship practice, and boosting reforestation by planting trees on church land.

The Anglican Communion’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Martha Jarvis, said: “Having an Anglican presence at summits like COP16 is an important opportunity to share Anglican voices and concerns about issues of biodiversity loss. But it goes beyond the summit: it’s also about ensuring that our attendance mobilises ongoing advocacy and action. We pray that following COP16, Anglicans can play their part alongside government leaders in restoring God’s world.”

Last week, the BBC TV presenter Chris Packham launched a campaign by the charity Wild Card calling on the Church Commissioners to rewild 30 per cent of their land by 2030 (News, 11 October). Its petition has been signed by more than 100,000 members of the public. Standing on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, Mr Packham read from a nine-metre scroll described as the “95 Wild Theses”, which included reasons to improve biodiversity on the Commissioners’ land.

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