Fossil fuel – The Green Tau

Counting on …. Day 1.192

12th October 2023

“Global south countries are currently spending five times more on repaying debt than they are on addressing the impacts of the climate crisis.”(1)

Poor to start with, these countries have to borrow to fund basics such as road building, education, housing and healthcare – imagine how a country could pay for these from taxation when only, say, 5% of the population earns enough to pay tax. Add to that the increasing cost of the climate crisis – the cost of flood destroyed agriculture, infrastructure and homes; the cost of rising sea levels destroying costal areas and undermining agricultural fertility with saline water; the cost of droughts and wildfires destroying crops, infrastructure and homes. See how more debts escalate! And how can these countries find still more money to protect infrastructure and livelihoods against further climate change?

That is why “Cancel the Debt” is campaigning for the rich countries of the north that have made their fortunes through fossil fuels, to cancel these debts.

Like a bizarre plot twist, many of the indebted countries of the global south have been encouraged to develop fossil fuels as a way of boosting their GDP! But what was billed as means to a buoyant future has become a millstone round their necks. The evidence is that they become mired in a “debt-fossil-fuel production trap whereby countries rely on fossil fuel revenues to repay debt, and anticipated revenues from fossil fuels are often over inflated and require huge investments to reach expected returns, leading to further debt, eroding long-term development prospects, and causing devastating environmental and human harms.” (1)

Today various groups including Debt Justice, War on Want, the London Mining Network, and Christian Climate Action, are holding a demonstration outside the Bank of England, calling for the cancellation of the debts of the Global South.

(1) https://debtjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Debt-fossil-fuel-trap-report-2023.pdf

Counting on … day 1.104

28th April 2023

An article from the We Mean Business website points to the importance of switching from fossil to renewal energy to limit the rise in global temperatures. It is hoped that this will be the basis of the outcomes from the G7 meeting in Japan next month

“The Group of Seven nations’ energy ministers agreed this week to accelerate the phase out of all fossil fuels as an essential step in our efforts to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

To replace them with clean energy in the timescale required means immediately repurposing billions of dollars’ worth of fossil fuel subsidies that G7 nations still offer.

In 2021, G7 fossil fuel subsidies came to over $80 billion. Redirecting this capital towards scaling up renewables, increasing energy efficiency and supporting communities affected by this transition will put our climate goals within reach.”

https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/blog/to-phase-out-fossil-fuels-the-g7-must-stop-subsidising-them/?utm_source=Climate+Weekly&utm_campaign=1805d3d517-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_04_21_02_34_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-947741a97e-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Green Tau reflection: prayer and hope

25th May 2022

Over the last 24 hours I spent about 6 hours supporting the Christian Climate Action vigil outside the Methodist Central Hall, the venue for this year’s Shell AGM. I didn’t stay overnight as some brave souls did but came and went in stints. My companions were deeply committed to the environmental cause: that we humans need to wake up to the damage we are causing to the wonderful creation God has provided and of which we are an integral part: truly we are brothers and sisters, kith and kin with every other living thing. Yet our human unabated consumption of fossil fuels is producing carbon dioxide in such quantities that we are changing the climate, wiping out plant and animal species, melting ice caps and glaciers, and consigning our fellow humans to poverty, ill health and death.

Our presence, as well as being peaceful and prayerful, was intended to raise people’s awareness of the climate crisis and the role that large oil companies, such as Shell, play. To put this in context, CO2 emissions for the entire globe in 2021 were 36.3 bn tonnes, and of this Shell contributed 1.299 bn tonnes. To avert the worsening affects of climate change, CO2 emissions need to be reduced by 43% by 2030, and to zero by 2050. This is a huge challenge for us all but one which will be hard to achieve if the fossil fuel industries continue to invest in expanding oil and gas production rather than shifting to the production of renewable energy.

As I prayed, I admit I had little hope that my prayers were going to effect an about-turn on the plans that Ben van Beurden, the Shell CEO, has for the company. However I did have a slither of hope that our prayers and our presence might influence the hearts and minds of the shareholders. Perhaps there might be a stirring in their conscience about the effects that fossil fuel are having on the planet. Perhaps they might begin to ask questions about the sense of pursuing profits from oil if it results in a world that becomes uninhabitable. Perhaps they might question why the company was not protecting their future by investing in renewable energy. Perhaps they would question the leadership being offered when such a large CO2 producer choose not to follow the global strategy agreed at COP26?

So I prayed. In my mind I envisaged the Holy Spirit like a dove flying around above the heads of the shareholders in the Methodist Central Hall, perhaps pausing to whisper in someone’s ear. I envisaged a scene similar to that of Pentecost, of the room where all the disciples were gathered, with the wind of the Spirit inspiring and energising those present. I imagined little flames might hover above people’s heads and that they might have the experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, of something warm burning within them.

Outside the building drums and the call and reply of protestors rose and fell like a storm. Inside the hall, the sound would, I guess, be deadened and I thought of the still small voice in the storm encounter by Elijah. And I thought of the story of Jonah and the storm he encountered and which manhandled him (with the help of a whale) to the shores of Nineveh. There to his surprise and chagrin, the people listened to the message and repented.

And I prayed. I envisaged the call of the evangelists, repent and believe. Repent – a change of heart, a turning around of the way we think, a conversion of the way we do things – and believe. Believe that there is a better future, that we can look forward to a new and brighter future, where things will be green and beautiful, just and fair, where we will live in peace together. As well as seeking a new way of living – repentance – we need to offer a vision of the better world in which we can all live: the kin-dom of God.

Counting on ….day 159

21st April 2022

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Founded in the USA in 1970, it is now observed by more than a billion people around the world as a day of action to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes. This year’s theme is Invest in Our Planet: “All TOGETHER now! This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.”

“The goal of EDO’s campaign is to push aside the barriers erected by the ancient, dirty fossil fuel economy and their co-conspirators – old technologies of centuries past – and redirect attention to creating a 21st century economy that brings back the health of our planet, protects our species, and provides opportunities for all.“

Counting on… will continue each to suggest ways, big and small, by which we can make that change happen.