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“This is the only home we have,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu referring to the crucial significance of our planet and its survival. He was speaking in an interfaith rally in Durban, urging the United Nations conference on climate change (COP17) to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding treaty to address climate change effectively.

Considering climate change a “moral and spiritual crisis”, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, calls the COP17 United Nations conference on climate change a “last opportunity for the international community to be responsible in addressing climate change” and urges positive outcomes from the event.

Climate change is impacting human life and nature in severe ways. Yet it is the vulnerable who suffer most. As the life of such people is dependent on eco-systems for survival, churches join hands with other faith based organizations to support their cause, stressing an ethical aspect in the debate on climate change.

This past February the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee announced that the theme for the Tenth WCC Assembly in 2013 in Busan, Korea would be “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.”

Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia, is home to more than 11,000 people, whose very existence, which at one time was tied to the ocean and its bounty, is now threatened by rising ocean water levels.

The Chernobyl disaster of 25 years ago remains a human and environmental tragedy so severe the consequences will continue for centuries. Its anniversary this week is especially timely given the current emergency in Japan which echoes some of Chernobyl’s hard lessons. To learn them would honour those who suffer from the past and could save lives in the future.

By Marcelo Schneider (*)

Members of the WCC delegation attending the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 16) in Cancun, together with other delegates and members of local parishes, participated at an inter-religious celebration organized by Caritas Mexico and the WCC. The event was held on Saturday 4 December at the Church of the Risen Christ in Cancun and took as its motto “United in prayer: United for the creation that needs us”.

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation seeks to promote spiritual values at the climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. After the Copenhagen summit's failure to deliver a fair, ambitious and binding treaty in 2009, this year's conference is anticipated by many with cautious hope.

People around the globe are called to put their names and faces behind the call for strong international action on climate change. An international coalition of Christian organizations is organizing a photo petition that will bring the messages of all those who care for creation to the United Nations climate talks.

As the excitement of the Copenhagen climate change talks subsides, the time for matching reality with expectations has begun. From the perspective of the World Council of Churches (WCC) the outcome of the negotiations unfortunately did not match expectations.

"The present day reality shows that our sincere efforts have not been enough to bring in the age of social justice and peace," according to a statement delivered to the plenary of high-level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark on Friday, 18 December on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and its ecumenical partners.

With the climate change negotiations sputtering and showing signs of being less than legally binding, ambitious and fair, leaders of churches and international church organizations sent a message to negotiators Tuesday evening imploring them to "not be afraid." The letter, which was signed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the incoming and outgoing general secretaries of the World Council of Churches as well as church leaders from Europe, North America and the Pacific, says the negotiations are at a crucial stage and negotiators need to be steadfast to "act now."

Half way through the UN climate summit in Copenhagen and after a week in which no breakthrough was achieved, ecumenical leaders have asked negotiators to be more ambitious.

As a wave of ringing bells embraced the globe, churches sent a strong message to world leaders gathered at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen: There is only one world and in order to preserve it, bold action needs to be taken now.

By Mark Beach (*)

Resettlement of people displaced by the consequences of climate change was highlighted as a major concern for churches at a gathering of ecumenical representatives from Asia and the Pacific region.

Church representatives from around the world will gather in New York City 15-20 November to press three issues within the agenda of the United Nations: peoples being displaced by climate change, indigenous people's rights and Colombia's protracted internal conflict.

On the eve of the 22 September United Nations Summit on Climate Change representatives of faith communities around the world called on world leaders and on "all people of Earth to accept the reality of the common danger we face, the imperative and responsibility for immediate and decisive action and the opportunity to change."