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“The increased interest of corporate organizations in the World Water Forum has a tendency to discourage civil society’s participation in addressing the water crisis,” said Dinesh Suna, coordinator of the Ecumenical Water Network of the WCC upon his return from the 7th World Water Forum, which concluded on 17 April in Daegu and Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea.

Two new interactive websites have been launched by the WCC in order to promote strong engagement of churches with the vision of a “pilgrimage of justice and peace”.

A message of achieving human dignity, and the right to hope, in a world threatened by climate change was proclaimed on 28 April by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit in a meeting convened on climate change by the Vatican.

As part of churches’ on-going struggles for climate justice, the campaign Act Now for Climate Justice was launched at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland on Earth Day.

Anglican and Reformed member churches of the WCC have taken significant new actions toward climate justice.

The social and ecological cost of expanding mineral exploration and extraction was highlighted by churches at the World Social Forum.

In a high level panel on Climate Change and Human Rights held at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, the WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said that despite all negative conditions “we have the right to hope” – not as a matter of passive waiting but as an active process towards justice and peace, in which human rights should play a key role.

Publications focusing on eco-theology, ethics and climate change were presented by their authors in an event hosted by Globethics.net – a Geneva-based global ethics network in collaboration with the WCC.

Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, the WCC programme executive for Women in Church and Society, called on the movement of Christian students to reclaim its radical transforming nature towards a “pilgrimage of gender justice”.

An ecumenical workshop held recently in Matanzas, Cuba strongly promoted life-affirming epistemologies that can help to envision and construct alternatives to inequitable and destructive socio-economic systems that prevail in today’s world.

Outcomes, disappointments, as well as encouraging signs from the United Nations Climate Change Conference and the Peoples Summit held late last year in Lima, Peru, were discussed at length by representatives of faith communities.

Churches and religious leaders are at the forefront of efforts to mobilize action for a legally binding agreement on world’s climate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris at the end of 2015. The motivation of the WCC for its role in this arena is summarized in the title of its environmental programme: Care for Creation and Climate Justice.

Thousands of people are planning to embark on a pilgrimage of climate justice – either on foot or on bicycles – in many parts of the world.

Climate justice has been the focal point of the WCC advocacy strategy at 20th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which concluded on 12 December in Lima, Peru.

What is our call to respond to the global water crisis? In what way is our response different from other actors? To respond to these questions within a theological framework of water justice, the Ecumenical Water Network convened theologians from around the world at the Ecumenical Institute.

Care for creation and affirmation of faith values in addressing the impact of climate change were highlighted in a number of initiatives organized by members of the WCC in Lima, Peru. The capital is hosting the 20th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The adverse impact of business activities on the lives of members of the local population in Colombia and El Salvador was highlighted by the WCC-sponsored participants at the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Members and partners of the WCC are all set to promote climate justice from a faith-based perspective as United Nations climate talks begin in Lima, Peru.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, this week invited 20 of its major partners from the private sector and civil society to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The WCC general secretary represented faith based-organizations at a high-level breakfast in New York hosted by the UN agency.

The need for enhanced cooperation between the WCC and the ACT Alliance – a partner organization of the WCC, especially in addressing the threat of climate change and a human rights-based approach to development – was stressed at the 2nd General Assembly of the ACT Alliance in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic.