The Church of England’s General Synod voted overwhelmingly on 25 February 2019 to approve a joint motion from the Dioceses of London and Truro to step up the Church’s environmental programme, in response to the escalating threat of Climate Change.
The decision committed the church to:
- prepare a plan to ‘for the promotion, co-ordination and rapid acceleration’ of the Church’s Environmental Programme, ‘with particular attention to’ cutting its energy use and CO2 emissions;
- develop a system to measure and report churches’ energy and CO2 annually, tracking progress towards the Church’s long-term target of 80% cuts by 2050;
- call on every diocese to put in place an environmental programme overseen by a designated member of the bishop’s staff team;
- ‘promote communication and peer-review’ between individual dioceses, encouraging best practice in environmental policy and action;
- report progress to General Synod at least every three years.
Watch the debate here…
Luci Isaacson
Truro Diocese
