We are calling on governments and leaders to deliver a clean and fair recovery from the pandemic and build a sustainable future for all creation, by:
- 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.
The decisions we make now will shape our economy, society and climate for decades to come.
We are at a turning point. During the current COVID-19 crisis, many 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 to address the immediate crisis and look beyond it to transform our society and economy so the whole world, current and future generations, and all of creation, can flourish.
For this to happen, we need our governments and leaders to act. We need pandemic recovery plans that will create good jobs and are aligned with global climate targets. 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 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. The virus has exposed, fed off, and increased existing inequalities of wealth, gender, and race. We can start tackling this growing inequality by cancelling the debt of poorer countries to allow them breathing space to recover from the pandemic.
At the same time, the destruction of natural habitats continues. Pandemics, like the current COVID-19 crisis, will threaten us more frequently if biodiversity loss is not slowed. We mourn the damage to God’s creation; we seek the restoration of our natural world, particularly the forests on which so many species and communities depend.
Join us by signing this petition!
