FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 14, 2014
Contact: Chloe Schwabe, cschwabe@maryknoll.org, 202-549-1696
Maryknoll commends U.S. contribution to Green Climate Fund as first step to meet our moral obligation to God’s most vulnerable, urges Congress to ensure robust funding
The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns commends the administration’s $3 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund. This fund has the potential to finance important adaptation and mitigation projects to transform the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable communities to climate change in developing countries and to protect God’s creation.
Our Catholic faith calls us to be in solidarity with those who are poor and to protect God’s creation. Maryknoll missioners serve impoverished and marginalized communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America where they witness the impacts of climate change such as food insecurity, lack of drinking water, devastating droughts and super storms. These significant challenges not only mean that God’s most defenseless children are faced with life-threatening health impacts, but also are often forced to migrate. Climate change threatens all life on Earth, as well of future generations.
Although $3 billion is a large amount, given the effects of climate change that we already see – and the predicted increase in hurricanes, tropical disease, hunger and migration – we believe that this number falls short of the U.S. moral obligation to jump start the Fund and the hundreds of billions necessary to meet the actual needs of our neighbors in the developing countries that are most at risk to climate change. We urge Congress to ensure that the U.S. meets its moral responsibility to our brothers and sisters around the world.
