In 2023 and 2024, global leaders are negotiating a treaty to ban plastic waste. Renew Our World, a global coalition for justice and creation care including Tearfund, A Rocha and many national partners, is spearheading a campaign to put pressure on our political leaders to act on plastic waste.

While the official Rubbish campaign week of prayer just passed, we invite you nonetheless to continue to pray!

Join people around the world in responding to the world’s rubbish problem through prayer and action. Here is a prayer resource you can use: Rubbish Campaign Week of Prayer and Action.

We bring you news from our friends at Tearfund/Renew Our World! There is an exciting new resource, with our very own Revd Dr Dave Bookless as the lead author.

Note that they are looking for co-publishers in translating and publishing this for wider reach and use!

“We’re launching Making a World of Difference at COP. This is our resource for church leaders, giving a Christian understanding the climate crisis, the nature crisis, and the signs of the times. It’s short and accessible and we hope it helps equip church leaders in many places. The lead author is our Board member Revd Dr Dave Bookless, Director of Theology for A Rocha International and Catalyst for Creation Care for the Lausanne Movement, with contributions from over 20 others from around the world.

‘I love this booklet and warmly commend it for three reasons: first, it is short and very easy to read and get your head around; second, it keeps making you stop and think by asking searching questions again and again (ideal for church and student groups); and third, it combines great biblical teaching (that I wholly agree with!) with lively and inspiring examples from all round the world, to help you not just think again, but choose to go and do likewise.’

Chris Wright, Global Ambassador with the Langham Partnership

It will be available in English, and soon after in Croatian, French, Portuguese (with Brazilian and European versions), Spanish, and Thai, with a few more languages on the way after that. We’re looking for co-publishers interested in translating and publishing Making a World of Difference online, in print, or both, on a non-commercial basis. Please do get in touch if you might be interested. You can contact Ben Niblett at ben.niblett@tearfund.org”

In 2023 and 2024, global leaders are negotiating a treaty to ban plastic waste. Renew Our World, a global coalition for justice and creation care including Tearfund, A Rocha and many national partners, is spearheading a campaign to put pressure on our political leaders to act on plastic waste.

Watch the video here:

Sign up at https://www.renewourworld.net/rubbish_petition

Welcome to the Renew our world podcast. Renew our world is a global movement of Christians who believe that since we are truly image bearers of God, we should act like it – living out love for one another in actions and in truth. Since we are image bearers of God, we won’t stand by while our neighbours are trapped in poverty, and we won’t stay idle as creation is left untended, and inequality is left to fester. 

In the podcast we are going to go on a journey together of discovering a theology of creation care. We’ll be discussing the latest in climate news, chatting with industry leaders, theologians, and practitioners and hearing from some of our incredible partners working on the ground. 

Join with us this season as we learn about creation care and what we can do in our lives to play our part in a bigger restorative story. 

Episodes are released regularly, and can be found at the Renew Our World website, Itunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The forests are groaning in need of resurrection
The waters are rising, crying for attention
Creation is calling, reaching for redemption

We need you now, Lord hear our prayer
Give us your love, give us your touch
To meet this world in need, to be your hands and feet

Give us your heart, give us your eyes
To serve in love and truth, to see the world renewed
Renew our world…

 In particular, we note that both the destruction and fragmentation of natural habitats, and also unsustainable, often unregulated, and frequently illegal use of wildlife and wildlife products contributes to the disruption of ecosystems and the likelihood of pathogens transferring to humanity from wild animals. We recognise that many human societies, including some indigenous and traditional peoples, depend on wildlife products for food and medicine, and we call for full implementation of national and international laws against the illegal wildlife trade, and better regulation of legal wildlife commerce, for the good of human health and for nature’s flourishing.   Alongside this, we urge Christian communities worldwide to teach the inherent value of all creatures to God and to encourage virtues of compassion, caution and care in relation to the human use of nature and its constituent parts.

Read the full statement here, in Spanish here, or download a printable PDF. We would particularly encourage you to view the interview on YouTube, or download the transcript here.

*Renew Our World is a global movement of Christians who believe that since we are truly image bearers of God, we should act like it – living out love for one another in actions and in truth. Since we are image bearers of God, we won’t stand by while our neighbours are trapped in poverty, and we won’t stay idle as creation is left untended, and inequality is left to fester. Join the campaign here!

Here’s why it matters:

Humanity has been procrastinating, and it’s not too late to limit the world’s warming to 1.5 degrees, but there’s a lot of work left to do. The UN’s climate talks near the end of each year are the place where the international agreements get made and the details worked out, or not. COP25 was going to be in Santiago in Chile, and moved to Madrid in Spain at one month’s notice because of the unrest in Chile. 

The main things to achieve in Madrid are:

1) Boosting national enthusiasm for cutting emissions faster. At the moment if each nation does everything they’ve promised in their plans, we’ll have 3.2 degrees of warming, which will be catastrophic. The world’s emissions are still rising; they need to halve by 2030, halve again by 2040, and again to reach net zero by 2050. Back in 2015 we had the landmark Paris Agreement, which agreed to limit warming to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible and agreed that each country would come up with a plan for their share of that, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution (or NDC) in UN jargon. Countries are due to present draft plans by February, so doing that in Madrid would be ideal, before finally agreeing them next year in Glasgow, which is a crucial year. There’s a tracker for who’s pledged to reach net zero by when, so far. 

Public opinion and climate campaigning internationally have reached much higher levels than ever before, and here in the UK we’re in the middle of the first general election where climate is one of the top issues. We need all of that pressure and more, and as much progress at Madrid as we can get.

2) Agreeing the rules for emissions trading, so they don’t have loopholes and aren’t easy to fiddle. This is unfinished business from previous COPs, and there’s a risk of countries being allowed to count emissions cuts that aren’t new and have already happened, or count them twice, so although they’re arcane and tedious they’re also very important.

3) Naturally, it’s never not about money, and another main Paris Agreement promise was that richer countries would transfer climate finance to help poorer countries adapt to climate change and find clean ways to develop, reaching $100 billion a year by 2020 (a lot of money of course, but a lot less than needed). The more of that money actually arrives, the greater the amount of trust there will be as nations negotiate. 

CAN, the Climate Action Network, have a full policy summary of what’s needed.

So we’ll be praying and calling for this COP to be effective. We’ll also be planning for the landmark (we hope) COP 26 beside the River Clyde in Glasgow next year.