Another wet morning as I walk across Westminster Bridge. The night shift report that it has only been raining a few hours and that they are all relatively dry. Vanessa and I settle into their seats, draping our ponchos strategically to keep as much dry as possible.
Rain isn’t all bad – Brethren Seagulls are again enjoying a delicious breakfast as they peck their way across the grass.
I stay an hour before moving on to Shell where it’s just as wet! This is my regular Wednesday slot and I receive encouraging greetings and acknowledgements. The ‘F*ck Shell’ from a cyclist is emphatic.
Back to Parliament and where before there were just two vigilers, now there is half a dozen. Likewise the footfall has increased. As tourists gather around the statues in Parliament Square, their umbrellas form an undulating sea of colour.
School children and students on the other hand are less concerned about the rain and walk passed bareheaded. They are seem bemused by our presence. The words from a World War I poem go through my mind: ‘For your tomorrow we gave our today.’ What can we give or do now to ensure a liveable future for this next generation? Our efforts sometimes seem so futile in face of what is coming. On the other side of London, my daughter is on trial with 4 other women for breaking the glass of the offices of JPMorgan Chase in an attempt to give the bank a wake up call about the urgent and catastrophic nature of the climate crisis.
But we are faced not just by a climate crisis: we have a biodiversity crisis, an ecological crisis, and a justice crisis. We need to change the way we live as humans. We cannot go on as greedy beings (mainly those of us in the global north) consuming resources at an annual rate that needs one and three quarter worlds to be sustainable.
We need to change our aspirations and priorities. We need to work together, to collaborate. Does the answer lie with the world faiths? Is this where we should find the teachings and the impetus to create a different and better way of living together as human beings?
Heavenly Parent, may your kingdom come, your will be done.
The rain is not a disincentive. Our numbers continue to swell and soon there are maybe two dozen people plus two beautifully behaved dogs. It is no just tourists and school parties walking by. There are more and more activists – maybe first time activists – with kefir scarves or Palestinian flag and badges, heading for the Cromwell entrance. They are going to Green Card their MPs and use this democratic right to impress upon Parliament the urgent and pressing need for a ceasefire in Gaza. Here is an overwhelming crisis of justice.
As I walk over Westminster Bridge just before seven, I see twelve cormorants swoop and swerve and land in the buoyant waters of the Thames.
I’ve come to relieve the night shift who all looked amazingly bright and alert! Maybe being outside for the occasional night is good for us – a bit like the tradition of putting babies outside to sleep in their prams.
Monday morning and these are the going to work hours. The flow of pedestrians (from right to left) comes in rushes as, presumably, the pedestrian crossing upstream turns green. So many people pass by. A few do give a nod or a smile but hundreds don’t. Do they notice us? Or are we blanked out along with so much else that we ignore in order to manage our hectic pace of life? But I notice two passers-by whom I had seen earlier in the week – one who slated us about the futility of prayer; the other who had prayed with us. So maybe it is distraction not disinterest.
From across the street a man shouts an inaudible greeting that could be positive or negative. He weaves his way through the traffic and lands in front of us.
‘Do we want a cigarette? No? Well can he sit down – he’s tired.’
There’s an empty chair so we say yes. He half talks to us and half talks to passers-by shouting out greetings with a ribald feel.
We’re praying we explain. We’re not ignoring him but praying is what we’re doing here.
After a few more minutes he lurches to his feet, leaves and then swings back to give us a final piece of advice.
We continue to pray. Across the Square the trees stand clear and upright but less shiny than they were in the rain.
A smart business man, briefcase in hand, pauses to read the sign. He’s the business side of what we’re doing. Money is the solution to the climate crisis. His company redirects the massive sums of finance needed to boost renewable energy. He advises other companies, knows the people one needs to know. He’s on first name terms with the head of the Church of England’s investment board.
I venture that CCA has been active in encouraging charities and dioceses to switch from Barclays. ‘Why ever so? They have just announced they will not be funding new oil and gas.’
‘Is it that clear cut? They’re still providing a lot of funds for the oil and gas industries.’
‘XR don’t understand. We need oil and gas to keep people supplied with cheap energy in the interim. We can’t just stop investing in oil and gas – you need to invest to continue to the extraction from developing wells. Here, take my business card.’
Earlier the bells at Westminster Abbey chimed in anticipation of the 8 o’ clock prayers. Now they sound for the 10 o’ clock prayers. After I have gone, they will ring again for the noonday service. There are, I think, more services on a week day than a Sunday.
I welcome Michelle who is taking the next hour, gather myself up and walk back over Westminster Bridge now heaving with tourists.
8.00pm for the evening shift. The departing crew are numerous including four from one church -I’m impressed: I’m the only one from my church and I’m a given.
I settle into place tucking my feet under my prayer stool and my hands into my gloves. The banner and thus our place of gathering has shifted. Now I’m facing a tall lamppost. At the top is a round bright line that suggests the moon brightly glowing. But I look up into the clear sky above and there is the genuine thing – serene and surreal, nothing can match her beauty!
On the banner before me are two nightlights their flames gently flickering in jam jars. I’m alone for the first hour – they keep me company, whilst across the Square my other faithful companions remain resolute in their isolation.
Your kingdom come – what were Mandela and Gandhi and Fawcett trying to establish? The right of self determination for the poor and marginalised. For their freedom to live as equally and as comfortably as those with power. For justice.
Evening is the hour of the car. No construction vehicles and work trucks now. Instead fast and expensive cars glide effortlessly around the Square, their sleek outlines contrasting with the workaday shapes of the double decker bus and the London cabs.
We have created a kingdom where the car rules supreme – the pinnacle of a achievement. A luxury self contained capsule where in quiet and ease we can travel oblivious to the troubled lives of others.
Hot of foot Daniel joins me. He is soon drawn down into the other world of the vigil. Here in the edge of the Square we’re not part of the stream of human life that trickles and flows through the Square. We’re not part of the traffic that flows in, and round, and out. We’re part of the infrastructure – living stones – of the Square.
Evening is the hour of entertainment. Those walking by do so with a leisurely gait – hand in hand or laughing. Night tour buses and rickshaw bicycles bedecked with lights loop the Square. One bus is a travelling restaurant serving haute cuisine.
Not everyone’s entertainment has been so refined. Roy is certainly under the influence of something other than fines wine. His clothes too are street weary. He wants to talk, to express his support for what we are doing. His body can’t keep still and his words won’t come out straight. Swear words slip in unbidden – he knows they will but he’s also apologetic. He tries to divert his conversation to the police on gate duty but the wrong words come out – expressions of pent up feelings. He pulses his body together and his feet waver off down the street.
Your kingdom come – what would that look like for Roy? A place where is respected and valued, where his needs are fully furnished not approximated, where he can be free of addiction.
Gentle quiet Esther joins us. The vigil accentuates calmness in those who participate, but some people have it with them always.
The news is full of fighting and the threat of fighting. Your kingdom come – what would it look like in Gaza? In Israel?
Evening is the end of the working day in Parliament. They exit in ones or twos – slightly weary, heading home – or as small groups full of cheer and camaraderie – a good meeting or meal, a successful day! These are mostly young things – political interns or policy makers?
For other Parliamentarians (the more senior ones?) journey home is motorised: the police open and close the heavy metal inner and outer gates that guard the driveway, allowing these solid heavyweight vehicles to slip quietly out before powering off down the street. Others come out wheeling their bikes. Then swinging over a leg, they pedal off into the night.
The night shift arrives equipped with sleeping bags and warm clothes! It’s time for me to move, to unbend my legs, flatten my feet and stretch out my toes.
It has rained all night and I hope those outside have stayed warm and reasonably dry
5.40 I dress and pack last things in my bag. Bike lights on. Waterproofs secure. Go. The road is empty and sparkling with the combination of street lights and rain.
Like everywhere else, Parliament Square is sodden but the overnight vigilers are positive! We perform a tricky dance as we swop places, adjust rain clothes, fold and unfold umbrellas. With my ponchos spread like a tent I sit on a small camping stool. Inside a foggy warmth builds up – it keeps me warm if not dry. Waterproofs have a tendency to be less so as the wet persists!
Calm returns and Jonathan and I settle into the composure of vigil.
Jonathan reads a passage by Thomas Merton about rain in which he talks about rhythm and sound of rain. Parliament Square has its own sounds for a wet Sunday morning. There is the swish of car wheels against water. The gentle slap of running shoes – running on a Sunday morning is clearly popular come rain or shine. The illusive sound of wetness that seems to hang in the air.
There are few people walking by. Sunday is not a working day for many. There are no construction vehicles wheeling past, and few delivery vehicles either. Even the police presence is diminished.
The Square has both a daily rhythm and a weekly rhythm and even a yearly rhythm. Sit here long enough and you’ll become part of it.
On the far side of the expanse of flat green grass that fills the Square, a row of London plane trees provides a lacy edge to the sky, whilst in the rain their patterned trunks stand out proudly. In between at head height, way-farer palms trees look oddly out of place in a rain soaked London.
On the grass seagulls stab for food – maybe worms brought up by the rain. Picking up on yesterday’s thoughts, I greet Brother Seagull with a silent “Good morning”. His reply comes back, “Awk….awk…awk!”
The gulls are joined by a pair of Egyptian geese, their feathers glossy in the rain-washed light. “Good morning Mr and Mrs Goose!” Egyptian geese are known for their fidelity.
There are few tourists this morning. Sight seeing is a fair weather pursuit and only a few resilient Japanese walk past following their tour guide.
The rain which has blown both heavier and lighter, dwindles and fades away. Faint patches of blue appear in the sky and ten flags unwrap themselves from their flagpoles.
Wetter weather may well be a consequence of increasing temperatures: warmer air can hold more water. Adapting to wetter winters and drier summers is something we will have to embrace.
A pavement cleaner stops to talk. He’s seen our signs and is from personal experience deeply aware of the effects of the climate crisis and equally convinced that it is unlikely we will make changes to turn the situation around. He is 73 and comes from Bangladesh. Rivers that used to teem with fish – the key part of their diet and a source of income – are lifeless, the waters polluted with pollution from factories and cities. Children can no longer swim there – nor too do the dolphins. He despairs that it will never change – yet he tells us that whilst simply to pray will not achieve anything, to pray and act is a different matter altogether. And he prays all day – and as to working, his name, Abdullah, means slave of Allah. He left us feeling greatly uplifted. Somehow despite the odds, he radiated hope.
These are my experiences from 7.00 till about noon. Later in the day I know more and exciting things happened!
Walking over Westminster Bridge as Big Ben struck 7 a new day began. In front of the Carriage Gates three vigillers beamed as Sandie and I arrived. Peter and Anne were already folding up their bivvy bags whilst Ben was still snuggled down inside his sleeping bag. Greetings and a few photos and then it was goodbye as Sandie and I settled down behind the climate justice banner.
I pray of God’s holiness and the holiness of every created thing.
Watching the traffic, at 7 in the morning it’s mainly commercial vehicles – plus the ever-circulating buses – and specifically ones serving the construction industry. As the morning passes so the number of cars increases which is not to say that the construction vehicles were any less. Basically the road just gets busier! One was a cement lorry making a delivery to the works going on at Parliament, which claimed to be carrying eco-cement. Cement -which produces 622kg of CO2 per tonnes – accounts for about 7% of global total emissions. It maybe that as well as green cement we need to think twice about building new roads, tower blocks or even just drive ways.
I pray for God’s will, God’s rule – that God’s way of doing things would prevail in our hearts and minds.
During the morning others joined the vigil – a merry band of pilgrims! One had come only a short way – he worked for the Methodist Church. We talked about money. It seems more obvious to swop your pension to an ethical one because pensions obviously deal in investments. But greening your bank seems – initially – less obvious. They just look after your money, nothing more? I talked about CCA’s campaign to encourage charities and dioceses to move away from Barclays. He talked about working with the local circuits to discuss ethical banking.
I pray that God’s kingdom would come with its transformative ordering of the world. I pray for daily bread – how come we live in a world with food that goes to waste whilst many go hungry?
A mum from Birmingham had extended her visit to her son in London to be able to come. A woman from a UR Church in south east London joined the group. Then a group from a church in Sutton. And a then a fellow Franciscan tertiary. At one point we were accosted by a man asking why we were praying. He thought we should raising money for the scientists in white coats rather than praying to ‘a fairy in the sky’.
We knelt our ground.
The footfall, like the traffic changes through the day. Initially it is people going to work, streaming out of the underground and striding out down towards Millbank, coffee cups and lunch bags grasped in their hands. There is a slight lull before the tourists dominate the pavement – and large groups of teenage students being shown the Houses of Parliament and more frequently the companions from my night shift – Mandela, Gandhi and Millicent Fawcett.
There are more families than usual as it is still half term and several children carefully read our posters and ask their parents what we are doing. One young man spends several minutes filming and then interviewing us – he wants to understand more about the climate crisis.
I pray for forgiveness and healing.
Ten or so small toddlers walk by, each wearing Wellington boots and a small high viz vest and a wrist strap linking them to their respective nursery carer. Like puppies they don’t walk in a straight line and ver off wherever the fancy takes them. I think they’re going to the gardens between Parliament and Lambeth Bridge. Emmeline Pankhurst stands inside the gateway keeping an eye on all who come and go.
I took the night shift – we were a cheerful group of a half dozen. Melanie had emphasised the need for lots of layers to counter the cold so I had a sleeping bag inside a bivvy bag with a poncho on top to keep out the rain and my ski suit underneath. It was an unseasonably mild night so I was super super warm and had to remove hat and gloves to allow for some cooling! I took the night shift – we were a cheerful group of a half dozen. Melanie had emphasised the need for lots of layers to counter the cold so I had a sleeping bag inside a bivvy bag with a poncho on top to keep out the rain and my ski suit underneath. It was an unseasonably mild night so I was super super warm and had to remove hat and gloves to allow for some cooling!
Parliament Square in the late evening feels very different from early morning or midday. The traffic swings round faster headlights catching on the buildings. The pedestrians are night owls and theatre goers – they can saunter by as they have the full width of the pavement to themselves.
Traffic in and out of Parliament is still controlled by the police but the bobbies on the beat are replaced by teams of four armed police – rifles nonchalantly slung on their backs.
Across the square Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Millicent Fawcett are more visible in the street light than their loftier companions mounted on much higher pedestals. They stand patiently but what was must be their desire to move and walk the streets again? What would they say to us? How would they encourage us to act?
Around midnight the view of sky became obscure and the rain came – not heavy but wet! With my overlarge poncho drooping over my face much of the light and certainly the view is cut out and my tired eyes close and open. Come on, I think, I’m meant to be praying! I squint across the Square at our vigilant companions – how long did they spend restricted by prison life, or pressing on against the odds with what might have seemed an unwinable cause? They strengthen my resolve.
I am feeling very tired, my stomach is rumbling and my legs feel stiff: I’m not sure I can do this. What if I bail out and go home? There are plenty of taxis circling the Square – but I have forgotten to bring a house key; I’d have to wake someone up.
I let my eyes close and doze.
Maybe I have actually been sleeping. Certainly I’m now feeling brighter. A couple walk over Westminster Bridge to make use of the toilets and the 24 hour Costa at St Thomas’s. The rain has eased and I am nice and warm inside my multiple layers. Someone shares some dates – nature’s toffees! This is beginning to feel manageable.
I watch the buses loop round on their various routes. Double decker buses are an amazing invention! Nippy despite their size, they provide bright warm transport for dozens of people – so much more efficient than those low slung, gas guzzling cars.
I’ve slept some more and wake to hear Big Ben striking. Its quarter hourly time check is a comfort. I forget to count and now I’m not sure if it’s 4am or 6 am. The sky looks lighter and I can hear birds singing.
It’s 4am. A digestive biscuit fills a gap. Our companions across the Square encourage my focus, whilst on either side of me, Sandie and Annette are gently singing hymns and Taizé chants.
Another shift of armed police set out. The night buses are still looping past, bright light shining out so their windows like mobile Advent calendars. Not so many passengers but already people are on their way to work. The first staff are going into Parliament behind us – cleaners and ancillary workers I guess. Someone has raised the flag on the Supreme Court. As the next hour passes the double deckers fill with people on early morning shifts. A resilient few are cycling past at great speed – or maybe they’re the fun loving one’s taking advantage of the clear roads. I hope they are paid well for their unsocial hours but I suspect not.
Soon it’s 6.30am. The dawn has crept up on us and the light is daylight bright. The traffic is picking up its day time pace.
7.00am and here comes Alison who will be taking the next shift. And – of wonderous joy – here comes my husband! He’s got up early to join us for breakfast at Gail’s!
in which I wrote “Maybe our penance – the penance for those who see the harm we have as humans have caused – is raise the cry, to sound the alarm, to be prophetic, so that others too can be called to account.”
This year Christian Climate Action, and other faith based and ecological groups, have organised a ten day – and night – vigil outside Parliament. Hour by hour, people will sit, stand or kneel, in prayer and reflection for the well being of the earth, for justice, for the preservation of life in all its forms, for human repentance for the harm we have done in driving both the 6th mass extinction of species and the acceleration climate crisis. If you are in the area, do come and join in; if not do nevertheless keep this focus as part of your Lenten discipline.
A business is an enterprise that sells something it makes or sells a service it provides. It can be a one person operation or a multinational employing thousands.
The business operation will incur costs and will remain viable provided it covers those costs. The business may need capital to get started or to expand it operation, and it may need loans to balance out peaks and troughs in its cash flow. Usually the business will over time earn more from what it sells than its costs and so makes a profit. Such profits are usually kept by the people owning the business. In some cases that might be some or all of the people who work in the business, in some cases it might be both employees and customers (eg a cooperative), and in some cases it might be external shareholders.
The success of a business is usually equated with its ability to make a profit. A successful business makes large profits, less successful businesses make smaller profits, and those that make no profit close down.
But is profit the only way of measuring success? What about customer satisfaction? What about being a good employer? What about the business’s contribution to the stability and wellbeing of the local community?
Thames Water makes high profits and has the worst for receiving complaints from customers. Might a more successful water company be one that best provides what customer need – clean, reliable drinking water?
Amazon is highly profitable company but many of its employees are both poorly paid and subject to stressful working conditions. Employees feel they are being constantly monitored and that even taking time to go to the toilet is counted against them. Might a successful company be one that provides long term secure employment that gives job satisfaction, wages that support comfortable living standards, and credible pension? It could be us or our neighbour or our children who are looking for gainful employment.
Small rural communities – and increasingly deprived urban communities – are finding that they have no local bank, fresh food shops, dental surgery etc as the pressure to maintain profits pushes business to leave an area or to downsize. This is not good for the local community and can become a spiral where the more businesses leave, the more quickly the area becomes depressed and the more other businesses leave. With the businesses go local jobs. The heart of the community is quickly lost. Might a successful business be one that adds vitality to its community, is valued by local people and keeps jobs and money circulating with the community?
Actually in all three of these scenarios one might feel that the customer’s wishes were not be valued by the businesses. What has happened to the understanding that ‘the customer is always right’? How often have you been held on a phone call to have the oft repeated – but barely credible – ‘Your call is important to us’ automatically relayed to you?
It does seem that the idea that the main purpose of a business is to make a profit does not benefit the consumer nor the community. Further what we are now increasingly seeing, is that the primacy of profit is also detrimental to the environment.
In Herefordshire the large number of industrial scale chicken farms has led to high levels of effluent running into the River Wye, polluting it with phosphorus and killing its wildlife.
In Spain strawberry growers have been abstracting so much water for their crops, that the Doñana national park – a renowned wetland area – is being depleted of water threatening the survival of many plants and creatures including flamingos, spoonbills and the glossy ibis.
Globally the burning of fossil fuel products has triggered an escalating climate crisis threatening all forms of life, whilst the fossil fuel companies have continued to make recording breaking profits.
One approach to this problem is to replace the traditional bottom line of ‘loss or profit’ with a ‘triple bottom line’ which measures the business’s impact over three area: economic, environmental and social – or the 3Ps: people, planet and profit. It is however harder to find ways of measuring the loss and profit aspects of people and planet, and of doing so in a way that allows for comparison across businesses. How do we put a price on community stability or clean air?
Suffolk Libraries commissioned a research company to assess the value of their libraries. Using surveys, focus groups and modelling, the researchers found ways of measuring the social impact of the services the libraries offered that translated into monetary values. They concluded that for every £1 spent, the social value gained was £6.07.
The environmental impact of a business might be measured in terms of carbon emissions, or in terms of the cost of making good damage to the environment. If the chicken farms in Herefordshire has to pay the cost of cleaning and revitalising the River Wye, it would make a significant impact on the bottom line of their businesses. In 2021 local MPs wrote to the government asking for £15 million to clean up the river.
One organisation that has developed a way of measuring better business
practices is B Lab. This not-for-profit international organisation has developed a certification system that “measures a company’s entire social and environmental performance. From supply chain and input materials to charitable giving and employee benefits, B Corp Certification verifies that a business is meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.” Successful businesses become certified as B Corps. (For more info – https://bcorporation.uk/)
The campaign for better business practices is ongoing and seeks to include not just those businesses with a conscience, but to extend the expectation of good practice in all the 3Ps, to all businesses. B Lab UK and a coalition of more than 2400 businesses, is campaigning to amend Section 172 of the Companies Act. At present this section directs businesses should prioritise the success – ie the profitability – of the company for the benefit of its members – ie shareholders. The proposed amendment would direct that businesses should prioritise the purposes – ie the social, economic and environmental impacts – of the company. (For more info – https://betterbusinessact.org/ and https://thehumanbusiness.co.uk/better-business-act/)
Change in the way businesses operate is both possible and achievable.
The world – people, animals, plants, birds, economies, agriculture, water supplies etc – is already suffering from the effects of climate change and this is a crisis that will continue to grow (exponentially) unless action is taken. The major contributor of the greenhouse gases cause this, is fossil fuels.
The IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report (2023) states “Limiting human-caused global warming requires net zero CO2 emissions. Cumulative carbon emissions until the time of reaching net-zero CO2 emissions and the level of greenhouse gas emission reductions this decade largely determine whether warming can be limited to 1.5°C or 2°C (high confidence). Projected CO2 emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure without additional abatement would exceed the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C (50%) (high confidence)”. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/resources/spm-headline-statements/
In other words, our current production levels and use of fossil fuels will, cumulatively (because they build up and remaining in the atmosphere for generations), cause global temperatures rises in excess of 1.5C. (In 2023 the global temperature rise was 1.2C above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980))
The IPPC’s report goes on to to say “Finance, technology and international cooperation are critical enablers for accelerated climate action. If climate goals are to be achieved, both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold. There is sufficient global capital to close the global investment gaps but there are barriers to redirect capital to climate action.”
Finance is key but it will only be effective if it is targeting projects that reduce emissions. One would expect therefore to be seeing an ongoing g and rapid transfer of money away from fossil fuel projects and into the support of renewable energy. Yet in January 2023 Reuters reported “The share of bank finance going to renewable energy rather than fossil fuels has little changed in six years, raising questions about how fast lenders are pushing energy clients to become greener, according to research published Tuesday. Since 2016 renewable energy has taken 7% of a total $2.5 trillion in bank loans and bond underwriting for energy activities, according to a report commissioned by environmental groups including Sierra Club and Fair Finance International.” https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/bank-funding-renewables-stagnates-vs-oil-gas-report-2023-01-24/
A report, Banking on Climate Chaos, records that fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks reached $5.5 trillion in the six years since the Paris Agreement, 2015, and 2022. Of these JP Morgan, the worst bank overall, financed $39 billion in 2022, so totalling $434 billion between 2016 – 2022. Top rating amongst the European banks was Barclays, which took seventh place in the league table, having $190.5 billion over the time frame.
Barclays provides finance to numerous oil companies including Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron, Total, and Equinor. This is finance that supports both existing and new projects. Yet there is no space in the world’s carbon budgets for this continuing increase in emissions. “Potential emissions from fossil fuels already in production or under construction – the wells already drills or being drilled – already takes the world well past 2C of global warming… world cannot afford any fossil fuel expansion…” https://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org/
Not surprisingly a number of climate concerned groups are pushing for change – both of banks that they stop financing the fossil fuel industry, and of customers that they stop using these highly destructive banks.
It is often argued that moving one’s money out of Barclays will have no impact as it will merely be replaced by money from elsewhere. I’m not sure that that can always be true – there must at some point be a finite sum of money to be banked. But turning it round, the money you move can then be invested by a greener bank to support renewable energy and other beneficial projects – and this indeed might be money they would otherwise not get. And don’t worry of the amount you are banking with is small: for every £ deposited, banks will lend a multiple amount. Even if that multiplier was only 2 it would double the financial contribution that you money makes to green investments.
Here in the UK Make My Money Matter is calling on individuals to “green their money” as well as encouraging students and alumni to call on their universities to switch to sustainable banks – https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/
Just Money offers another perspective on the issue, this time from a Christian view point, and has advice and resources for churches and charities wishing to switch to green banking.
And it is not just charities that are being asks to reconsider their banking arrangements. The same ask is being made of churches and dioceses. Christians are called to care for creation and to love their neighbour – which are actually overlapping vocations – and switching to a bank that does not pursue profit through the financing of fossil fuels, is one of the easier steps they can take!
The National Gallery began when in 1824 the British Government bought, on behalf of the nation, 38 paintings from the heirs of the late John Julius Angerstein, a business man and art collector. Thus it is that the National Gallery’s collection is owned by the government on behalf of the British public. Its constitution states “The Gallery’s aim is to care for the collection, to enhance it for future generations, primarily by acquisition, and to study it, while encouraging access to the pictures for the education and enjoyment of the widest possible public now and in the future.”
It goes on to describe it audience as:
Frequent and occasional visitors to the Gallery in London
Those who see its pictures while they are on loan elsewhere, both inside and outside the UK, and those who know the collection through publications, multimedia and TV
Those who live nearby as well as those who live further away in the United Kingdom and overseas
Every age group – from children to pensioners
The socially excluded and the privileged; the uninformed and the specialist; and those with special needs
The National Gallery certainly aims takes seriously its particular role of caring for a collection of art works that belongs to the British people, and making it fully accessible to them.
Like many museums and art galleries, the National Gallery undertakes a responsibility to facilitate and enhance the educational use of the collection for the benefit of people of all ages and backgrounds. It hosts exhibitions, school visits, workshops and talks, tours, musical events, sketching sessions etc as well as producing many publications relating to the collection. It makes full use of digital technology and the further opportunities that that affords.
Chris Michaels, the director of digital, communications and technology at the National Gallery, spoke at ‘greenloop 22’ – a visitor attractions conference focusing on sustainability – spoke about the practical steps the National Gallery is taking to respond to the climate crisis – such as making positive choices about which electricity supplier to use. He also spoke of ways in which the Gallery could go beyond such operational steps.
“It concerns thinking about how we, as storytelling institutions, can start to think about the future and make sure that the stories we tell live in that future the right way. To me, very simply, art finds new relevance in this time of crisis.”
He expanded on this with examples. “If you look at Canaletto now, if climate change progresses at the speed it is now, and if we don’t make things better, this Venice will disappear beneath the waters for good.
“If we think about artists even as recent as Monet, painting in the late 19th century, there is a picture he famously painted from when he was staying at the Savoy in London. The hazy skies in the picture were also products of climate change, even at that time. This landscape, too, will vanish as London potentially disappears beneath the waters.”
He concluded, “Climate change and the climate crisis, for museums, becomes a storytelling frame to understand the new relationship between art history and our futures. Those hazy skies and their meaning are something I keep coming back to in terms of the way they change our understanding of the past and of the future.” (2)
This September the first UK Museum COP was held at Tate Modern. It issued the following statement: “As leaders of the UK museums, we feel a responsibility to speak out about the current climate and biodiversity crisis and call upon UK politicians and businesses to accelerate action to mitigate this crisis before it is too late. We are already around or beyond crucial tipping points: global temperatures are higher than they have ever been since humans emerged as a species, and extinctions are occurring at around a thousand times the normal rate. There is an existential threat to the world we have become accustomed to.
“Museums are institutions with a long-term view. Many have collections relating to the Earth’s five previous mass extinction events, and we are now in the midst of the sixth, the Anthropocene. UK museum leaders feel they have an ethical obligation to take action to alleviate that damage.”
They went on “We will [u]se relevant collections, programmes and exhibitions to engage audiences with the climate crisis and inspire them to take positive action …” (3)
Clearly there is a growing awareness of the role that museums and art galleries can take in advancing the debate about climate change and in shaping how the public responds to this crisis. But is this growing awareness leading to action at a fast enough pace to be of use? Or are they likely to be overtaken by events?
In some instances they already have. The National Gallery, the Royal Academy, the Courtauld, and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery have all been targeted by Just Stop Oil activists have used popular paintings to make the point that very little – in proportion to the scale of the emergency – is being done to address the climate crisis. Their actions seek both to raise awareness in the wider public, and to call upon the art galleries themselves to demand action from the Government. Similar actions have also been carried by climate activists in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain,Norway, Canada, and Australia.
What would happen if rather than closing down these actions, museums and art galleries choose to work with activists as they seek to press for responsible climate action? Several museums in Germany have done just this, working with the group Letzte Generation (Last Generation). At the Hamburger Kunsthalle, activists took over the foyer for a non-violent resistance, reading essays and conversing with visitors. Similar essays actions took place at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, the Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig, the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen, the Rostock art gallery, the European Hansemuseum in Lübeck and the Museum for Communication in Nuremberg. (4)
Works of art, as well as have great value in inspiring thoughts and new ideas, often have spiritual values too. Indeed many were created for religious purposes to aid and encourage worship.
Last week I took part in an action at the National Gallery with others from Christian Climate Action. We gathered in front of a painting of ‘The Madonna and child with saints Jerome and Dominic’ by Filippino Lippi, where we unrolled a copy of the picture which had been digitally altered to show flood waters that half submerged the characters. This we held as a statement was read out describing how for many Christmas is not a time of joy, because their lives are threatened by the effects of climate change. As we knelt prayerfully we sang a version of Silent Night – the acoustics were wonderful.
“Why did members of Christian Climate Action gather prayerfully beside a nativity painting at London’s National Gallery, with a different picture to reveal?
“As Christians we celebrate the birth of Jesus, born in poverty as a refugee, to show us the way of love and peace, and justice which is love in action. Christmas is still for the children. But today, world leaders are failing them. As governments profit from weapons and from fossil fuels, babies are born into climate chaos as well as war. In this painting, the baby – like his mother but unlike Jesus and Mary – is white, but we remember those brown and black babies born in the Global South still waiting for climate reparations and most at risk of unliveable heat, hunger, drought, flooding and displacement. We honour those born into poverty here in the UK as inequality widens, and all the world’s children whose future is at risk while the adults in charge pursue yet more oil and gas. We grieve that after 28 COPs, world emissions in 2023 have reached a record high to match all the heat records broken month after month.
“Only with change for good can the young find hope. Christmas lights can’t dispel their darkness. Along with inflatable Santas, magical snowmen and red-nosed reindeer, art like this is hollow and fake. The altered image we held beside Lippi’s painting shows the terrifying reality children face. Sentiment, tradition and festivity won’t save us. The science is clear that new gas, oil or coal will accelerate climate breakdown. We can’t serve God unless we serve that truth. Unless we work for life, justice and peace – with love.
“One billion children – almost half of the world’s child population – live in countries that are climate-vulnerable. A third of the world’s child population is impacted by both the climate crisis and poverty.
“According to UNICEF, extreme weather has internally displaced at least 43 million children in the last six years – the equivalent of 20,000 children a day being forced to abandon their homes and schools.”
The Diocese of Chichester votes against divestment
On Saturday 18th November I joined a group of CCA people holding a vigil as members arrived for Chichester Diocese’s Synod which was to vote on whether or not to remain invested in fossil fuels. We were then invited in to observe the debate. What follows is based on the notes I made as people spoke.
The motion came from the Chichester Diocese Fund and Board of Finance (incorporated) and was as follows:-
“1. ETHICAL INVESTMENT Mrs Lesley Lynn (Chair) to move that “This Synod re-affirms that care for God’s creation is foundational to the Christian gospel and central to the church’s mission and, recognising
(a) the importance of working towards a future which does not depend on fossil fuels;
(b) the need to both develop alternative energy supplies and reduce the demand for energy before freedom from fossil fuels can be achieved; and
(c) the central role that large energy companies have to play in developing alternative energy supplies, agrees that it will continue to invest in Shell and BP only while those companies have a clear strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement goal to limit the increase of average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
The first part of the motion states a positive green view of the Church’s values and calling. From this (a) and (b) are logical ambitions, and by inference so is (c) – which it is certainly not! There is a lot of published material that shows that fossil fuel companies like Shell and BP are part of the climate crisis problem; not the solution.
Yet Lesley was forthright in her views that continuing to investing in fossil fuels was a responsible solution to the climate crisis. Her main argument was that to address the climate crisis we must reduce energy consumption. At the same time she believed fossil fuels were essential to our daily lives for energy and transport. To reduce the availability of fossil fuel energy would be detrimental and would further impoverish the poor through higher prices.
This view ignores the facts that renewable energy is cheaper to produce; that the prices of both fossil, fuel and renewable energy are distorted by government subsidies and policies which favour fossil fuels over renewables; and that renewable energy can and will increasingly support our daily living needs as we transition to net zero.
A speaker against the motion, reminded us of the plea from the Churches of the South, who are calling on us, their brothers and sisters in the west, to divest because they are suffering unbearably from the effects of the climate crisis.
The actions the Church – in this case the Diocese of Chichester – carry with them a message that is heard far and wide, that proclaims our values. Divesting speaks of justice for those in the global south – as well as for the poor in our own communities. Divesting also speaks of care for the environment which is a message many young people and the unchurched in our society want to hear.
Lesley presented the argument that staying invested gave the Diocese a voice in the boardrooms and AGMs of Shell and BP, and thus the means to effect changes in the ways these companies addressed climate issues. She noted that the Church of England nationally no longer had this agency. A speaker against the motion pointed out that the National Investment Body NIBs had taken this view up until this year but has concluded that the rate of progress was too slow – given the urgency of the climate crisis – and that both Shell and BP had in fact changed direction and showed no intention of transitioning at a rate fast enough to be of benefit.
The motion put forward by Lesley asserted that large energy companies had a central role to play in developing alternative energy supplies. No evidence was given in support of this. In fact with regards to Shell and BP this is certainly not the case.
Global Witness examined Shell’s spending on wind and solar for 2021 and found it equated to just 1.5% of their capital expenditure. In March 2022 Shell announced it would spend £20-25bn over the next ten years in the UK energy system – a figure which shrinks when considered in relation to their annual profits for that year alone of £32bn. Further, of this proposed spend in the UK, only 75% would be on low and zero-carbon products and services, which while including offshore wind, hydrogen, also includes carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) and electric mobility.
A smiliar picture exists with BP. Between 2016 and 2022 BP spent $3.2bn on clean energy compared with $84bn on oil and gas exploration and development. Since then Bernard Looney the CEO has been replaced as he was felt to be leaning too much in favour of green policies.
In terms of investing in renewable energy, Lesley said that if the Diocese did divest, they would not reinvest that money in renewables as the Diocese already had a sufficient spread of renewable in their portfolio.
The motion put forward by Lesley also had the proviso that investment would continue only so long as ‘those companies have a clear strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement goal to limit the increase of average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.’
One research body that assesses the compliance status of companies is the The Transition Pathway Initiative Centre. This is the research body used by the Church of England. It finds that both Shell and BP are not compliant. However Lesley does not agree with their formulations and prefers instead those of the World Benchmarking Alliance. However even their benchmarking does not actually confirm that Shell and BP are Paris Aligned, just that there are relatively more ecological/ ethical than other oil companies, ranking 11th and 12th respectively. Lesley did add that as well as investments in Shell and BP, the Diocese has investments in Total (which ranks third on the World Benchmarking Alliance) and the Diversified Energy Company. (This latter, apparently buys old oil wells and revamps the infrastructure so as to reduce the emissions linked to the extraction process. This sounds like a positive but it does nothing to reduce the much larger emissions from when the oil is used).
Another speaker against the motion suggested that as the Church was capable of making ethical investment decisions not to invest in tobacco, arms, drugs or the sex trade, why could it not equally make the decision not to invest in fossil fuels? In reply, Lesley differentiated between them saying that if overnight all arms or drugs disappeared, the world would be a happier, safer place. But if oil disappeared overnight we would all be stranded.
Bringing the debate back to ethics and values was important, for the motion was linking investment decisions to the Christian calling to care for creation. Nothing in the debate supporting the motion suggested how continuing to invest in Shell and BP would achieve this. At a recent conference ‘Church Investment in Climate Solutions: Financing a Liveable Future’ (organised by Operation Noah and FaithInvest) the importance of having a clear investment policy that reflects faith values was emphasised. With such a clear policy, churches and faith groups are then equipped to go to their financial advisers and say these are the values we want our portfolio to reflect.
This is where I feel the Diocese of Chichester has failed. It has a adopted an ethical investment policy that is illogical, claiming in the one hand to care for creation whilst at the same time investing in companies whose main product is one that is destroying the planet. Further, having included provisos within its policy to limit the adverse effects of its investments on the climate, it is continuing to invest in companies that clearly do not meet the stated criteria.
The vote sadly went in favour of continuing investment in Shell and BP:
For 62 against 32 abstention 9.
Saturday was a sad day for the Diocese of Chichester, for the wider church, for Christian witness and for the wellbeing of creation.
The Green Tau 