- Christian relief and development agency Tearfund calls for parties to stand by climate change commitments ahead of election
- Election should be about more than just Brexit
- Christians urged to think about global poverty and climate change before voting
Relief and development agency Tearfund has urged all political parties to keep focusing on global poverty and the environment after the Prime Minister announced plans to hold a general election.
Theresa May has confirmed she wants to have a vote on June 8th.
Speaking after the announcement, Tearfund’s Head of Advocacy Paul Cook said: “This election will undoubtedly be framed around the UK’s departure from the European Union.
“But, as crucial as the Brexit negotiations will be, we cannot allow them to overshadow other vital issues like tackling global poverty and climate change.
“Tearfund is calling on all parties to focus on helping the poorest people in the world by reaffirming their commitments to fulfil our Paris agreement promises on climate change and continuing to support spending 0.7% of GDP on overseas development.
“This election is a great opportunity for Christians to remind their local candidates to deliver on promises made in the Paris Agreement on climate change and continue to champion international development by providing generous overseas aid.”
The UK Government has already signed up to the Paris Agreement which sets out a global action plan to start putting the world on course to address dangerous climate change. It commits the country, along with 194 others, to limit global warming to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.
Tearfund knows from first hand experience that climate change hits the poorest people hardest. Unpredictable rainfall means more droughts, creating a greater risk of famine, and more floods, damaging homes and livelihoods.
This is why Tearfund is committed to working with local churches helping poor communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change whilst speaking out to world leaders to reduce global emissions levels and explore innovative means of sourcing the money needed to help communities to adapt.
Ends
Notes for Editors
- For more information please contact Tearfund’s media team: Antony Bushfield on 020 8973 1230 or email [email protected] or out of hours, please contact: 07710 573749
- Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency and a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee www.tearfund.org
- At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal which sets out a global action plan which begins to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming, and to move to zero greenhouse gas emissions
- The UK parliament passed a bill in 2015 which enshrined in law the commitment to spend 0.7% on overseas aid. This idea was first suggested by the Church in the 1950s and gained cross party support at the last election.
