Religious observers find conflict surfaces early at UN climate conference

(Dec.08,2009): The underlying tension between the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases and small countries, quickly surfaced on the first day of the U.N. conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. In smaller gatherings, after Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen opened the conference on Monday with the remark that a deal is within our reach, the Alliance of Small Island States said it would accept nothing less than a legally binding pact to limit greenhouse gases. A much less demanding but politically appealing agreement would do little to protect its countries from rising sea levels, said the alliance, a coalition of 42 small island nations, low-lying coastal countries and territories. Two officials from the U.S.-based Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns said the position taken by the alliance, serves as a call to the world, to ensure that developed countries take definitive steps to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Nearly three dozen representatives of Catholic aid and development organizations are in Copenhagen to deliver a common message that action must be taken immediately to ease the impact of global climate change on poor and vulnerable people because they already are being adversely affected by drought, flooding and rising sea levels, brought on in part by the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions from more developed countries. Before the world gathering, religious leaders offered their prayers and called for responsible actions on behalf of the earth.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, Bishop Paul Bui Van Doc of My Tho urged Catholics in his southern diocese to focus on preserving the natural world. In an Advent letter, he asked people to keep waterways clear of pollution and to conserve energy and waste, as they go about their daily lives. Bishop Doc, head of the Vietnamese bishops' doctrinal commission, warned Catholics against damaging the environment for personal gain. He cited deforestation, the release of toxic waste by local factories and the government-run hydroelectric plants built on rivers in central provinces as causes for concern.