Following my article two weeks ago on what would count as ‘success’ at COP28, here is a report back. Predictably, COP28 ran over for an extra day as delegations struggled to tried agree a final statement that all might support. Fossil fuels – 'Phase down' or 'Phase out'? COP28 became the …
Faith in human rights: Our common journey as global citizens
This week begin celebrations of 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). We may not have much day to day awareness of UDHR or be able to quote any of its 30 articles, but we all have benefited enormously from its adoption by the UN General Assembly in 1948. So, what has been the …
COP28 – Benchmarks for success
King Charles has opened the COP28 Climate Summit in the United Arab Emirates with the following words: I pray with all my heart that COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action at a time when, already, as scientists have been warning for so long, we are …
Why the US should change course on sending cluster munitions to Ukraine
We urge President Biden not to send cluster munitions to Ukraine. In 2021, 97% of global deaths from cluster munitions were civilians and two thirds of these were children.[1] Unexploded bomblets from cluster munitions litter areas of land posing a threat to children and adults long after a …
Banning boycotts and divestments – have we not learned anything from South Africa?
The UK Government has just tabled a bill placing restrictions on Local Authorities and universities that is extraordinary in many ways. The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill states that central government (not Local Authorities or their constituents or the governing …
COP27 – what should we be looking for?
At COP27[1], the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, made headlines on the opening day when he stated that “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator”. Some commentators saw this as exaggerated rhetoric to capture the headlines. Yet even the sober judgements of …
Biden says nuclear risk is the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
Jo Biden told a meeting of Democrats yesterday that the risk of use of nuclear weapons is the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.[1] The President warned that for the “First time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use nuclear weapon if in fact things continue …
Public morality and private profit: the case of nuclear weapons
On 21st June governments and civil society representatives from across the globe assemble in Vienna for the first meeting of State Parties of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The event will see the gathering of State representatives (Ministers and Diplomats) alongside city …
“We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
On Monday, Russia, United States, China, UK and France came together to state that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. The ‘Reagan Gorbachev principle’, as it has become known, may seem to be a fairly obvious truth. But this is the first time that these five nuclear weapons …
COP26 – what was achieved?
COP26 was the most significant climate summit since Paris in 2015. The measures outlined in the COP26 Glasgow Climate Pact are critical if we are to set a course to keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees. Members of churches, in the UK and further afield, have been campaigning in advance of COP26 …