Renew Our World is calling on governments and leaders to use this once in a lifetime opportunity to deliver a clean and fair recovery from the pandemic and build a sustainable future for all creation, through:
- Resetting extreme inequality, starting by cancelling debt payments to give poorer countries financial breathing space.
- Getting the world on track for the safer level of 1.5°C warming, starting with pandemic recovery plans and climate commitments.
- Restoring damage to creation to help prevent the next pandemic, starting with forests.
At COP26, global leaders will review progress on the landmark Paris Agreement, including whether we are on track to meet the target of 1.5°C. We need leaders from all nations to hear the voices of people across the world, and to increase ambition on climate commitments to limit warming to safer levels for everyone.
Renew Our World Coordinator, Ben Niblett, said: “During the current COVID-19 crisis, many people are beginning to wonder what life might look like afterward. Is this a chance to create a new normal? We believe we have an opportunity in the run up to and at COP26 to address the immediate crisis and look beyond it to transform our society and economy so the whole world, current and future generations, can flourish. We believe we have a once in a generation opportunity to reset our economies and societies.”
Ben Niblett added: “We need national climate commitments that will reduce carbon emissions quickly and put us on course to limit warming to the safer level of 1.5℃. We need our government to act and the church to speak up.”
“We are also seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to an increase in inequality in almost every country at once - the first time this has happened since records began. We can start tackling this growing inequality by cancelling the debt of poorer countries to allow them to recover from the pandemic.”
“Alongside spiralling inequality, we are facing the loss of nature around the world. Destruction of land and forests, increases in pollution, the climate crisis, and overuse of natural resources all drive species loss. We need to restore damage to creation to help prevent the next pandemic, starting with forests.”
“The decisions we make now about how to respond to the pandemic will shape our economy, society and climate for decades to come.”
People anywhere in the world can take part in Renew Our World’s ‘Reset 21’ campaign by signing this petition.
