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Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship - Getting Ready for General Assembly - 6 Months Out!
GreenFaith 2023 highlights: Africa’s Abundance of Courage
Africa is the fossil fuel industry’s last frontier.
With 600 million Africans living without access to modern forms of energy, the need for electricity is as clear as day. But while oil and gas companies claim an anti-poverty mantle for their operations on the continent, the companies actually export most of the fossil fuels extracted from African soil, leaving behind a legacy of toxic contamination, human rights violations, and political corruption. To make things worse, Africa is the world’s most sun-drenched region—but home to a mere 1% of installed solar capacity on the planet.
That’s where GreenFaith Africa comes in.
For three years, our brave team (Baraka in Tanzania and Maxwell in Uganda, led by Global Organizing Director Meryne in Kenya) has organized grassroots opposition to the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and called instead for universal access to clean, safe, affordable, reliable energy for all.
In 2023, they took their case to African heads of state at Africa Climate Week, where they were the sole religious voice at work. Their message: “Don’t Gas Africa,” “Stop EACOP”. They put pressure on European and North American interests to fund the clean energy transition—which would cost far less than the war in Ukraine. Religious leaders carry substantial influence across Africa. GreenFaith Africa’s voice is a powerful agent for change.
In November, in collaboration with GreenFaith France, our African team released As If Nothing Is Sacred, a report documenting the widespread disturbance and destruction of local grave sites along EACOP’s proposed route. The report attracted global media attention. It rattled the project’s corporate sponsors (whose PR department issued a non-specific denial of the report’s eyewitness testimony) and governments in the region (one national energy minister nonsensically said that his country would not be “blackmailed” by an NGO.) Courageous African religious leaders issued their own statement supporting the report, despite threats of harassment and violence from corporations and governments alike. Newspaper editors told us that they had been told by higher-ups in no uncertain terms not to cover the story.
That’s why we were so proud when more than 120 newspapers across Africa and around the globe shared the stories our team had gathered.
In 2024, GreenFaith Africa will increase our activity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Nigeria—geopolitical front lines in the climate crisis.
Our African team has an abundance of courage. They need your support.
In faith,
Rose and the GreenFaith Digital Team
Building a Worldwide, Multi-faith Climate and Environmental Movement.
1216 Broadway
Floor 2 PMB 1005
New York, NY 10001
+1-917-997-8783
Copyright © 2022 GreenFaith - All rights reserved.
GreenFaith 2023 highlights from around the world: Part 1
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim majority country—and its tenth-largest greenhouse gas emitter. It’s also home to massive coal reserves and enormous supplies of nickel, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. Wealthy interests are pressuring the government to continue the destructive mining practices that have devastated local communities. Faith communities have a vital role to play.
GreenFaith’s Indonesian team, led by Hening Parlan, has relationships with grassroots and high-level leaders in the country’s six recognized religions: Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian. Hening has built a formidable base, conducting over 200 public actions with grassroots faith communities over the past two years.
Building on this, Hening has now begun pressing the country’s highest-level Muslim leaders to release a fatwa, an authoritative religious ruling, calling for a rapid coal phaseout. A declaration like this would send shockwaves across Indonesia and a strong signal to other Muslim-majority, oil-producing countries.
Hening has stood strong in the face of considerable resistance, a courageous stance that’s characteristic of our GreenFaith team. Great job, Hening!
Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan embraced a return to coal as a major energy source—the only developed country to double down on the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Coal still provides more of Japan’s electricity than any other source. The government and powerful industry leaders are prolonging the country’s reliance on a fuel that needs to be phased out ASAP.
GreenFaith Japan, led by Yoshiro Sada, worked with our Executive Director, Rev. Fletcher Harper, to build relationships with influential religious organizations across the country. We published educational briefings for Japanese people of faith, explaining the climate issue with support from Shinto and Buddhist teachings.
Then, in March, our Global Organizing Director Meryne Warah, based in Kenya, and GreenFaith Indonesia Director, Hening Parlan, traveled to Tokyo for meetings with representatives of major Japanese political parties, women’s religious groups and high-level faith leaders. They described how Japanese funds are deepening Indonesia’s reliance on coal and called for Japan’s banks to end their support for the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
Japanese religious leaders stood alongside us in these meetings. They told us that pressure from outside Japan is essential to creating change domestically.
Just weeks after our visit, a major Japanese bank withdrew from EACOP—a major victory! Up-and-coming legislators in two major parties told us that they would advocate for stronger climate policies. In 2024, we’ll be re-doubling our efforts with Japanese religious organizations to turn the country from a climate laggard to a leader.
We hope you enjoy these stories, and look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow!
In faith and solidarity,
Rose and the GreenFaith Digital Team
Building a Worldwide, Multi-faith Climate and Environmental Movement.
1216 Broadway
Floor 2 PMB 1005
New York, NY 10001
+1-917-997-8783
Copyright © 2022 GreenFaith - All rights reserved.
Friday, December 22, 2023
Today in the Mission Yearbook - The PC(USA)’s Young Adult Advocacy Conference features a workshop on gender justice
PPL eNews| Life Teams: What, Why, How
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