Comment

The world’s oldest institutions, and those in their pews and praying, have a unique opportunity to influence climate action for good, write Rohan MacMahon and Vincent Heeringa

Among the many dignitaries attending COP26 in Glasgow this month is Pope Francis, representing the Principality of Vatican City. As a jurisdiction, the Vatican doesn’t have much to report – its greenhouse commitments are encompassed with Italy’s, and its emissions include occasional puffs of white smoke.

As the leader of 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, however, Pope Francis has some influence. His 2015 Laudato Si ‘statement was an environmental milestone, highlighting climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss and inequalities as major failures that the Church and humanity must address. Laudato Si ‘has received much praise – and criticism, including from free market think tanks and the coal industry. You know you are doing God’s work when Old Coal complains.

Francis raised the bar last week by joining other religious leaders, representing around three-quarters of the world’s population, to launch a joint appeal at COP26 to come up with concrete solutions to save the planet from a “unprecedented ecological crisis”.

The Faith and Science: Towards COP26 meeting brought together Christian leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, as well as representatives of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.

The conference also launched Faith Plans, a major initiative to develop community and local plans for faith communities to answer the climate call. The Plans are commitments made by the world’s major faiths to develop a set of measurable and real initiatives leading to action on key issues such as climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development. They involve every religious group planning how they will manage their assets and resources over the next seven to ten years – from their investments, schools, hospitals and youth organizations to their lands, their purchasing power, their influence, their advocacy – and their wisdom.

This leadership of Pope Francis is welcome. Despite the hard work of many religious people, it is fair to say that religious organizations have been largely absent from the fight against the climate. Historically, religious have been the champions of social justice, education, medicine and human rights.

The Church has been in the realm of welfare since Jesus said “Blessed are the poor,” but this charity is almost absent when it comes to the rest of Creation. The critical environmental situation has been a blind spot for decades for the Church, and religious organizations more broadly. A simple example: Christian Savings Kiwisaver presents itself as an ethical fund while continuing to invest in a gallery of mining, oil and fossil fuel companies as well as companies engaged in animal experimentation.

Heralds of change

This call for change is significant. From investment funds and property management to education and advocacy, churches are an untapped resource for climate action in New Zealand. Christian denominations are sitting on vast assets that could be deployed in the struggle for the transition to a low-emission economy, and some will need to act decisively to reallocate their portfolios.

What could it look like? Faith Plans call for seven pillars of action, including how people and religious organizations invest and spend their money. These are seen as areas where denominations can have a long-term environmental impact. They start with investment assets, but also include efforts and funding for education, religious wisdom, lifestyles (including pilgrimage and tourism), advocacy, partnerships and celebrations, such than festivals. At the launch of Faith Plans, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called for a “global financial architecture that repents of past sins,” including changes in tax rules to promote green business. “For the past 100 years, we have declared war on creation… Our war on the climate affects the poorest of us.

New Zealand churches have billions of dollars under management, and the pews in these churches are filled with Kiwisaver investors and people who can create climate impact in their work and family lives. Religious leaders are reliable sources of information, and climate action, like immunization, is essential for churches to function properly.

Some innovations are happening. In recent years, churches and religiously motivated people have done an exemplary job in this other great crisis: housing. Stuff quotes Paul Gilberd, a senior member of the Anglican Church who works in the financial industry, who estimates that the Anglican, Catholic and Methodist churches are collectively worth more than $ 10 billion, and he says they could be the “lifeline.” nation’s bailout ”if they invest more of their immense wealth in housing.

A good example is community finance, which has its roots in the aforementioned Christian savings and is a collaboration between the Lindsay Foundation, the Tindall Foundation, the Matua Foundation, Christian Savings and the Wilberforce Foundation. It is an impact fund that offers community bonds to wholesale investors. So far, the bonds have funded the Salvation Army and CORT (a Baptist charity) to build more than 150 warm, dry, quality homes in Auckland. Many more are underway.

We would like to see impact funds with a religious base for environmental causes. And it is clear that we will see, preferably soon, a transition of investment funds to areas where they can create environmental impact, as well as returns.

Churches are the oldest institutions in the world and they are renowned for their slowness and prudence. Sadly, the climate crisis, which has lasted for over 150 years, has reached a stage where swift action is needed. At the Climate Venture Capital Fund, we commend the Faith and Science statement. We encourage local investors of all stripes to think about how best to support and benefit from the work required to preserve our lives and our planet.

We challenge New Zealand churches and people of all faiths to heed the call to make every effort, including financial, to fight climate change.

Rohan MacMahon is co-founder and Vincent Heeringa is venture capital advisor to the Climate Venture Capital Fund

https://climatevcfund.com/