How religious groups are fighting climate change, and one man who is helping direct their substantial assets into beneficial projects
- Religious groups have billions of dollars in assets and are increasingly taking action on the climate and ecological crises, says FaithInvest CEO Martin Palmer
- Through the non-profit, Palmer is helping religious institutions ‘move their finances into projects that benefit both people and the planet’
Many people have lost faith in the ability of governments to fight climate change. Projects involving fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas, the main culprits for the climate crisis - are going ahead in violation of scientific warnings.
Big banks continue to pour money into fossil fuels, while reports state that 20 fossil fuel giants, including Shell, BP and ExxonMobil, will invest almost US$1 trillion in new oil and gas deals by 2030.
Faith is also fading in the Paris Agreement, the treaty formed in 2016 to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius.
“The climate time-bomb is ticking,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, in a statement at the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Synthesis Report in Switzerland. “Humanity is on thin ice – and that ice is melting fast.”
Pressure must, therefore, come from other sectors.
