28 CLIMATE STEWARDS
Why bother about my church ’ s carbon footprint ?
by Caroline Pomeroy
Some years ago , when doing research for an MSc , I contacted all 500- plus churches in my local diocese with a list of questions about why churches do or don ’ t take action on climate change .
While I can ’ t vouch for the
accuracy of my statistical analysis , the overwhelming conclusion was that churches which understand the biblical imperative to care for creation will look for ways to put this into practice .
Churches responded with a myriad of ways in which they were working to reduce their carbon emissions – from changing the lightbulbs to switching to renewable energy , although ‘ We all bring our own blankets to church ’ might be considered taking things too far !
At Climate Stewards , we believe that Jesus ’ command to love our neighbour means that Christians are called to take action on climate change . The parable of the Good Samaritan ( Luke 10:30-37 ), reminds us that , in today ’ s world , our neighbours include our global neighbours , who may be facing crop failure , floods and droughts caused by climate change ; our future neighbours , who will see the much harsher impacts of climate change ; and our non-human neighbours , who face extinction as a result of climate change and land use change .
Climate Stewards ’ strapline is ‘ Reduce what you can , offset the rest ’. We help churches and individuals to tackle climate change in three ways . Firstly , we provide free online tools to help you calculate your carbon footprint ; secondly , we provide advice on how to reduce your footprint ; and finally we enable you to compensate for your unavoidable carbon emissions by supporting community carbon projects overseas .