Generosity needs to be at the heart of climate talks, says Archbishop

As COP28 reaches a critical point the Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John, has asked Christians to pray for vision and courage by world leaders to reduce global carbon emissions and for generosity from industrial nations to help those already impacted by climate change. His full statement follows:

Recent UN reports indicate that without drastic action by governments to reduce fossil fuel use and curtail carbon emissions, the world is on course for catastrophic temperature rise this century with unimaginable global consequences. It is imperative that we act now to avert future climate disasters by being bold in our ambitions to reduce global carbon emissions.

Yet, we must not forget that people are already suffering the adverse effects of climate change, with vulnerable nations being impacted the most – even though they have contributed the least to the climate emergency. That is an unjust situation which we have a moral responsibility to redress.

As the Church in Wales, we are deeply aware that we need to do more ourselves to tackle this most urgent of challenges. We have divested from fossil fuels, have declared a Climate Emergency and are working towards a Net Zero future for all our activities.

But we are not there yet, and it is from a profound sense of our own part in the complexity, the difficulty and the pain involved in these decisions that we pray that world leaders will take the visionary and courageous action that is needed, even as we undertake to play our own part in tackling the challenges that are before us.

I hope and pray for generous listening and generous giving among all at COP28.

The Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John