Global Warming Policy Vision, Principles and Recommendations

Representing people of faith in Iowa, foremost in our minds is the impact that continuing reliance on a fossil fuel energy system will have on people, particularly the poor and vulnerable, and on God’s sacred creation. Our greatest concerns are global warming and resulting global climate change, and the growing burden of increasing costs (economic, public health, societal, and environmental) from the increasing use of dwindling supplies of most fossil fuels.

We envision a transformation of the current energy system from a fossil fuel and uranium-based system to a more sustainable and clean system with growing reliance on wind, solar, biomass, small-scale hydropower, and muscle power. This new system will meet a demand for energy that must be lessened through greater energy efficiencies, conservation, and lifestyle changes.

We recognize that Iowa has a greater obligation to transition our energy system into the 21st Century, as our overdependence on coal generates more global warming pollution per energy unit than most other states. Iowa’s economy and manufacturing base will thrive in this new energy system by using energy more efficiently, building and installing wind turbines, and utilizing innovative methods to reduce carbon dioxide in our fuels and atmosphere.

We believe the following principles and recommendations are fundamental and must be considered during policy discussions to help move our state, our nation, and the world toward this more sustainable energy future while mitigating global warming and reducing the impacts on poor and vulnerable people and God’s sacred creation.

Justice: Strive for justice and acknowledge that global warming’s societal impact already falls, and will continue to fall, most heavily on the people around the world who are least able to mitigate the impacts—poor and vulnerable populations in the U.S. and in developing countries. As a leading industrialized nation that has disproportionately contributed to greenhouse gas emissions, it is incumbent upon us to rectify this injustice. To reach our goal of justice, we require that legislation:
o Include mechanisms that mitigate the impacts of global warming particularly for vulnerable populations in the U.S. and abroad.
o Prevent further harm to human health and all of God’s creation by utilizing clean energy sources when addressing global warming and carbon pollution.
o Focus on a fair and equitable distribution of total benefits and costs among people, communities, and nations, and in particular rectify the disproportionate impact that low-income communities have and will experience as the climate continues to change.
o Enable our brothers and sisters now living in poverty to have both economic independence and stability and to eliminate the devastating impacts that global warming has and will continue to have on those people in the U.S. and around the world living in poverty.
o Take action now to avoid placing the burden of carbon reduction unduly on our children’s children.
o Endorse policies that place a high priority on allowing all people to live in God’s abundance and with dignity by ensuring that basic human needs and worker justice are not adversely impacted by the effects of global warming or future efforts to address global warming.

Stewardship: Heed the call to be faithful stewards and caretakers of God’s creation by limiting the future impacts of global warming on God’s Earth. Already, global warming has damaged the precious balance of God’s creation, including increasing the number of threatened species, causing long-term drought, and melting Arctic ice. To reach our goal of stewardship, we require that legislation:
o Follow recognized scientific guidelines and recommendations in order to protect all of God’s creation and prevent catastrophic damage to God’s Earth and God’s people. Following their recommendations, legislation must include comprehensive, mandatory, and aggressive emission reductions that aim to limit the increase in Earth’s temperature to 2 degrees Celsius or less. Legislation should focus on the short term goal of reducing U.S. carbon emissions to reach a 15-20 percent reduction in carbon by 2020 with a long term vision to achieve carbon emissions that are 80 percent of 2000 levels by the year 2050.
o Avoid catastrophic global warming, which would devastate God’s creation, put more pressure on disaster and relief responses, and endanger the future of the planet. Although global warming impacts are already being felt, we must ensure that God’s people and planet are protected from the catastrophic effects that may occur if we fail to significantly curb our carbon emissions.
o Call on major emitters to take responsibility for their actions and work to significantly reduce their carbon emissions.

Sustainability: Ensure that efforts to curb global warming prevent further environmental and societal tragedies. As people of faith we are guided by the value of sustainability. Sustainability requires that we enable biological and social systems that nurture and support life not be depleted or poisoned. To reach our goal of sustainability, we require that legislation:
o Maintain God’s good creation by preventing policies that place the burden of our lifestyles on one aspect of creation and encouraging policies that sustain and restore vibrant eco-systems with economic justice so that communities of life can flourish for generations to come.
o Respond to global warming in a way that reflects the interdependence of all of God’s creation.
o Support energy sources that are renewable, clean, and avoid destruction of God’s creation.

Sufficiency: In a world of finite resources, for all to have enough requires that those among us who have more than enough will need to address our patterns of acquisition and consumption. We can not achieve significant reductions in global warming emissions unless we make changes in our lifestyles and particularly in our energy consumption. To support the goal of sufficiency, legislation must:
o Encourage energy conservation in our homes, our communities, and our places of worship.
o Encourage energy conservation in national transportation and distribution systems and commercial enterprises.
o Encourage the federal government to lead through research and example in the practice and implementation of energy conservation.

Contact: Tim Kautza, Coordinator, Iowa Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign and Iowa Interfaith Power & Light; Science and Environmental Education, National Catholic Rural Life Conference; 4625 Beaver Ave., Des Moines, IA 50310-2145; ncrlctk@mchsi.com, 515.270.2634