By Lesley-Anne Knight, Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis

The world is waking up to the reality of climate change. Scientists agree that it is happening – and that humanity is causing it. Engineers claim that we have the technology to reduce carbon emissions. Economists say we cannot afford to ignore it and have devised clever incentives to encourage business leaders to play their part. And politicians have realised that they have, at the very least, to pay lipservice to the cause.

But none of the above has a ‘magic bullet’ solution. The answer to the climate change crisis lies in the hands of humanity – in a revived sense of solidarity and a realisation that we all have a duty to work towards the common good.

In his recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI defines solidarity as “first and foremost a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone”.² To desire the common good and strive towards it, he says, “is a requirement of justice and charity”.³

Victory over climate change will come at a price, and the lion’s share of that price should rightly be paid by those who have benefitted most from the growth and development that is causing climate change.

Like the global financial crisis, the climate change crisis can be seen in terms of excessive borrowing: we have borrowed from the atmosphere and biodiversity of the future. As the economist Dieter Helm has pointed out: “We have been writing a large environmental mortgage on the consumption possibilities of future generations.”⁴

It might further be argued that the developed world has also borrowed from the development potential of poorer countries.

These ‘loans’must be repaid – there is no global atmospheric fund that is going to bail us out of this crisis. Excessive borrowing has funded excessive consumption, and it therefore follows that those who are in the best position to take action also have a responsibility to do so.

The inescapable conclusion is that – in a spirit of solidarity in pursuit of the common good – the excesses of the past must give way to more moderate lifestyles that permit the development of all peoples and of future generations.

As Helm notes: “We may have to preserve more now, lowering our standards of living, not only to make good all the financial borrowing, but the environmental borrowing too.”⁵

There is actually nothing new in this suggestion. Nearly 40 years ago, the Second Synod of Bishops stated: “Those who are already rich are bound to accept a less material way of life, with less waste, in order to avoid the destruction of the heritage which they are obliged by absolute justice to share with all other members of the human race.”⁶

What is new is that we now have economists backing up the arguments of the Church.

Pope Benedict too calls upon society to make a serious review of its lifestyle. Quoting his predecessor, John Paul II, he says: “What is needed is an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new lifestyles ‘in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments’.”⁷

The idea of accepting a reduced standard of living is not, however, going to be a vote-winner for governments. It will take courageous leaders to promote a culture of lower consumption. And they will need the support of the people.

This is why Caritas Internationalis is focussing on the ethical, moral and theological dimensions of the climate change crisis. The scientific and economic arguments are important, but they are not enough. If we are to change the world, we have to change human behaviour; and a fundamental change in human behaviour can only be based on deep-seated conviction, not short-term expediency.

In this document, we hear from our Caritas member organisations about the suffering that is already taking place as a result of extreme weather events; we examine the theological, moral and ethical arguments relating to climate change; we explore the inescapable obligations that Catholic Social Teaching places upon us; we look at the work Caritas organisations are doing in the field to help people overcome the devastating effects of climate change, and what Caritas Internationalis can do at a global level to campaign for real and effective change.

Pope Benedict speaks of the need for “intergenerational justice”. He says, “We must recognise our grave duty to hand the Earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate it.”⁸

Justice lies at the heart of Caritas Internationalis’ strategy in addressing the climate change crisis.Without it there can be no sustainable solution.