Current EEN and Evangelical Climate Initiative climate change information and activities.

Evangelical Perspectives on Climate and Air
Oxford Declaration on Global Warming
Forum 2002: Global Climate Change
Oxford, England, July 14–17, 2002

More than 70 leading climate scientists, policy-makers and Christian leaders from across 6 continents gathered for "Climate Forum 2002" in Oxford, England to address the growing crisis of human-induced climate change. The Forum recognizes the reality and the urgency of the problem, which particularly affects the world’s poorest peoples and the very fabric of the biosphere. The Forum also recognizes that the Christian community has a special obligation to provide moral leadership and an example of caring service to people and to all God’s creation. To that end, the Forum offers the following statement to church, business and governmental leaders.

• God created the Earth, and continues to sustain it. Made in God’s image, human beings are to care for people and all creation as God cares for them. The call to "love the Lord your God and love your neighbour" (Matthew 22:37–39) takes on new implications in the face of present and projected climate change. God has demonstrated his commitment to creation in the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ who "reconciles all things" (Colossians 1:20) calls his followers to the "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19).

Air pollution and change are seen in a new light on the "What Would Jesus Drive?" cross-country road trip.

• Human induced climate change poses a great threat to the common good, especially to the poor, the vulnerable and future generations.
• By reducing the Earth’s biological diversity, human induced climate change diminishes God’s creation.

Human induced climate change, therefore, is a matter of urgent and profound concern.

The Earth's climate is changing, with adverse effects on people, communities and ecosystems.

• There is now high confidence in the scientific evidence of human influence on climate as detailed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and endorsed by 18 of the world's leading Academies of Science.
• Human activities, especially the burning of coal, oil and natural gas (fossil fuels) are rapidly increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases (especially carbon dioxide) in the global atmosphere. As a result the global climate is warming, with rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, more floods and droughts, and more intense storms. These have serious social, economic and ecological consequences.
• The harmful effects of climate change far outweigh the beneficial ones:
• In many arid and semi-arid areas, the quantity and the quality of fresh water will continue to decrease.
• Although agricultural productivity may increase in temperate northern latitudes, it will decrease throughout the tropics and sub-tropics.