217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA, held June 15 – 22, 2006 in Birmingham, Alabama adopted the following recommendation for Presbyterians to Live Carbon Neutral Lives
1. Direct the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to make a study of personal responsibility and carbon-neutrality available as a Working Paper on the website of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as soon as possible, in order to share its concrete, effective action steps for Presbyterians to take to reduce their energy consumption. This Working Paper will highlight the threats posed by accelerated climate change and lift up ways for individuals, families and congregations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases produced in heating, air conditioning, transportation and food production, packaging and shipment. In addition, this paper will suggest policy measures being considered in greater depth by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy and several consultant theological ethicists and political scientists for eventual report to the 2008 General Assembly.
2. Finds that the Christian mandate to care for creation and the biblical promise of the restoration of right relationships between God, human beings, and the rest of creation impels and inspires us to act to reduce our energy usage.
3. Finds that the urgency, injustice, and seriousness of this issue calls us as Christians to act NOW and to act boldly to lead the way in reducing our energy usage.
4. Strongly urges all Presbyterians to immediately make a bold witness by aspiring to live carbon neutral lives. (Carbon neutrality requires our energy consumption that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere be reduced and carbon offsets purchased to compensate for those carbon emissions that could not be eliminated.)
5. Directs the General Assembly Council to assign the appropriate staff to inform all Presbyterians, governing bodies, and churches of the urgent need for them to reduce their energy consumption and the injustice of our current energy practices while ACSWP completes its work.
6. Calls upon all Presbyterians to take this seriously, to pray asking for God’s forgiveness and guidance, to study this issue, to calculate your carbon emissions, to educate others, and to use less energy, striving to make your life carbon neutral.
Rationale
The commissioners’ resolution on climate change, personal responsibility, and carbon neutrality calls for an interim statement on these important matters prior to the completion of the more comprehensive resolution on energy policy called for by the 214th General Assembly (2002). The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy appreciates the sense of urgency of the commissioners, who recognize that the assembly has already spoken several times on climate change or global warming. What is new in the commissioners’ resolution is the request that a resource on how to live "carbon-neutral" lives be made available online and otherwise in anticipation of the full energy report in 2008. The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy can do this, while making clear that the current draft report and other materials lack sufficient theological and geopolitical content for a full resolution. The energy resolution team that produced a report focused on personal responsibility and carbon-neutrality was appointed by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy and thanked for its work in late 2005. Because that document has not been completed, and has not been made available to commissioners, we believe it would best be termed a working paper but nonetheless made publicly available as the commissioners request.
At this time, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy is concerned not only with the raw fact of rapid climate change, but with the enormous political and economic interests involved in our current dependency on carbon-based fuels. Our nation is engaged in one significant war related, in part, to oil, and our country is particularly the focus of antipathy from large sections of the Islamic world. China and other developing economies are gaining in strength and increasingly competing for energy resources and geo-strategic advantage. Commissioners may note, then, that the report envisioned by the 214th General Assembly (2002) will be substantially broader than this background resource.
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