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THE WORLD is on fire. Wildfires have raged from Athens to the Arctic. Heatwaves have broken records in Africa, Japan, North America and Europe. Sadly, the wildfires and heat have led to lives lost and property destroyed. In Ireland, we suffered a very wet winter, and the wettest decade in 300 years. This has been followed by the worst drought in 40 years. Armagh broke its 175-year-old temperature record on 27th June with the heat reaching 30.4 celsius. Climate change is hitting hard and farmers and vulnerable people are struggling. The Church of Ireland offered prayers for the farming community, but is that it? Ireland has one of the worst environmental records in Europe (Irish Times 1st August), so where is the call from the House of Bishops for governments, both north and south, to accelerate the response to climate change, reduce pollution and prevent environmental degradation? As Bishop N.T. Wright said, “God is the Creator God, he doesn’t want to say, ‘Okay, creation wa...

Photo by  Jason Blackeye  on  Unsplash The Catholic Bishops' Conference has announced that the Catholic Church is to divest from fossil fuels. This is the second major church in Ireland to announce full divestment following the decision by the Church of Ireland to divest at its General Synod in 2018. The decisions by the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland put further pressure on the other mainline churches in Ireland to also divest from polluting fossil fuels. The Bishops' Conference spokesperson said, “Today, on the eve of Pope Francis’ historic visit to Ireland, I wish to announce the decision of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference to divest from fossil fuels. The Bishops’ Conference has signed the global Catholic fossil free pledge and today begins the process of divesting its resources from all fossil fuels. In doing so, we are responding directly to Pope Francis’ call in his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Sí (on care for our common home) by mov...

An excellent article on church divestment in the Financial Times today. The Church of Ireland's decision to divest at this year's general synod gets a mention. "We have to do something about it when we have the evidence [that global warming is happening]. And our investment portfolios have to reflect that,"

New Wine Ireland is a Christian conference that takes place in Sligo each year. It aims to help local churches change nations. I spoke at a seminar this year along with David Ritchie, the Chief Executive of the Church of Ireland's Representative Church Body. The seminar was on how local churches can help care for God's creation. The audio of the seminar is available from New Wine Ireland but I have put the text of my talk and a video of the slides below. The Church of Ireland also released a press article giving a summary of the seminar . It's time to Care for Creation Introduction Today David and I are going to give you two short and complementary perspectives on God’s creation and the actions we can take in response to environmental issues. Then we’ll take questions and hear what you have to say. I’m going to cover three points: A call to care A call to act, and  Time to Take action So first, [Slide 1] A call to care Conferences like New Wine a...

The Church of England got its act together at General Synod and voted to divest from oil and gas companies that do not align to the Paris Agreement goals. This is a significant step forward and a great success for the Operation Noah Bright Now campaign. Some great coverage from the press, including this article from Bloomberg , And an excellent comment piece in the Telegraph from Rowan Williams .

On Sunday 8 July 2018 the Church of England General Synod will vote on whether to divest from oil and gas companies not unequivocally aligned to the Paris Agreement goals of keeping global warming below 2C. This would be a historic vote and would echo the Church of Ireland commitment at its 2018 General Synod to divest from all fossil fuel producers by 2022. The Church of England is a powerful voice in institutional investments. It has led strongly in collaborative engagement in recent years. A successful amendment vote on Sunday at General Synod would send one of the strongest signals to fossil fuel companies that the time for serious action has arrived. Oil majors have been tripping over themselves with green announcements recently. Shell, ENI and Equinor have promised to reduce production emissions and to transform themselves into ‘energy companies’ rather than oil and gas companies. These announcements are welcome, but the Paris Agreement goals require a rapid reduction fossil fu...

This blog post was written for www.brightnow.co.uk Blog 21 MAY 2018 The Church of Ireland votes to divest from fossil fuels The Church of Ireland’s General Synod voted last week in favour of  full divestment from fossil fuels . Campaigner Stephen Trew explains how it happened. At the Church of Ireland General Synod 2018, I proposed a motion to exclude investments in all companies where more than 10% of turnover is from the production of fossil fuels. It was a long shot, for I am just a regular parishioner, not a member of the Standing Committee or the Representative Church Body (RCB). If it was successful, the RCB would have to divest millions of euro from fossil fuel producing companies over the next four years. The motion passed. The successful vote was by an overwhelming majority: about 80% supported it. Synod members were presented with the strong ethical case of withdrawing investments from an industry that causes human suffering and that poses an incre...

This article was published by the Christian Times 14 May 2018 Church of Ireland votes to divest from fossil fuel companies by 2022 Jardine Malado 14 MAY, 2018 (Wikimedia Commons/TripodStories- AB) The Church of Ireland has voted to divest from companies involved in production of fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The Church of Ireland has voted to stop investing in companies involved in fossil fuel production by 2022 as part of its efforts to reduce the impact of climate change. According to  Irish Times , the Church will be divesting from companies with more than 10 percent turnover from fossil fuel production by 2022. "Ethical investors around the world, and now the Church of Ireland, have looked at the ethics and the risks and concluded that divestment from all fossil fuels is the right thing to do," said Synod member Stephen Trew, as reported by  Irish Times . Th...

This article was published by the Climate Action Programme on 14 May 2018 Church of Ireland approves motion to divest from fossil fuels The Anglican Church in Ireland has voted to put an end to its major investments in fossil fuel companies. The decision came at the church’s annual General Synod meeting last week, after a motion was put forward by a private member. The move means the Church of Ireland is now committed to removing investments from all companies which derive more than 10 percent of their income from fossil fuels. The motion has a target date of 2022, slightly amended from 2020 by other members. At the same time, the church intends to continue supporting renewable energy investments and new environmental projects. Its exposure to fossil fuel companies has already declined from 11 percent to 2.5 percent in the past seven years. Stephen Trew, who put forward the proposal, highlighted the moral urgency to address the increasing impacts of climate change in Ire...

This is the article in today's Irish Times Church of Ireland to end investments in fossil fuel companies ‘Divestment from all fossil fuels is the right thing to do’ Patsy McGarry Share to LinkedIn Share to Pinterest Share to Reddit Share to Google+     Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Email App The  Church of Ireland  has made a significant advance to end its investments in all fossil fuels at its General Synod in  Armagh . It voted to exclude fully companies with a turnover of greater than 10 per cent from fossil fuel production, by 2022. As part of its ethical stance in climate change the church has made a major shift in its investments over the past seven years from fossil fuels towards renewable energy and forestry. In 2011, its investment funds exposure to fossil fuels was at 10 per cent and by this year it is down to 2.5 per cent. Church of Ireland’s investments are managed by its Representative C...