TrewsNews

The Church of Ireland has  announced  that the General Synod in Armagh in May 2018 will be a 'Sustainable Synod'. The announcement from the RCB in Dublin said that synod will aim to be paperless and, "reduce the environmental footprint of General Synod, encourage recycling, and reduce waste as much as possible." This is very welcome. I really am pleased to see this. I made the call for a Sustainable Synod back in February with this blog post and in the Church of Ireland Gazette and it is another sign that the RCB listens and is taking action when it comes to the environment. This is another positive step from the RCB. I hope they'll take more at General Synod itself.

Anglian archbishops and bishops have joined with 170 faith leaders from across the Commonwealth to call on governments to turn “words into action” on climate change.  Commonwealth countries have increasingly been affected by the effects of climate change. The chruch leaders write, “Not even the remotest corner of the Commonwealth remains unaffected or unthreatened by the impacts of climate change.” The leaders said that to keep the global temperature rise below the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees concerted action is needed. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph they wrote, “Subsistence communities in African countries struggle to grow crops in increasingly arid earth. In the Pacific, rising sea levels threaten the existence of whole countries. In Asia, salination is driving people from their land. Arctic communities’ ways of life are undermined. Ever more violent and unpredictable storms devastate the Caribbean. At the scale of the Commonwealth we can see tha...

The Archbishop of Dublin, The Most Revd Michael Jackson, is hosting a Climate Change Awareness event on 26 April 2018 at Trinity College Dublin.  The list of speakers is impressive and hints that more fossil fuel divestment is on the way. Three academics are speaking: Prof John Sweeney, Dr Lorna Gold and is Dr Cathriona Russell. Professor John Sweeny is the keynote speaker addressing The Science of Climate Change. There is no one better in Ireland to explain why Ireland is not immune to the dangers of climate change. He has written extensively, publishing 110 scientific papers on climate change in Ireland contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4 th Assessment Report. He also regularly writes about the topic in the national press. Dr. Lorna Gold is Head of Policy and Advocacy in Trócaire. She has led the charity’s campaign for climate justice and is an expert in the fossil fuel divestment. Speaking about solutions she has said, “fossil f...