Two Decades after Landmark Declaration – Pacific Churches Take a Stronger Stand for Climate Justice

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In May 2024, over 60 representatives of Pacific Conference of Churches’ member churches, ecumenical partners and climate justice activists met in Suva, Fiji, to revisit the seminal Otin Taai Declaration on Climate Change by the churches of the Pacific. Otin Taai is the i-Kiribati word for “sunrise.”  The declaration was made twenty years ago in Kiribati, and ushered in the prophetic role of Pacific churches to engage with the devastating impacts of climate change and climate induced displacement and relocation.

After two decades, the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) sought to commemorate the monumental journey of environmental leadership by Pacific Christian churches and enable their recommitment to climate action through a regional and ecumenical reconvening of Pacific church leaders and partners.

Already in 2004, the Otin Taai Declaration highlighted that sea levels were indeed rising, and the smaller islands of our region were beginning to experience first-hand the effects of human-induced climate change on our peoples and environment.

Back then, the Bible was used as the point of reference for engagement and the Genesis creation stories were used as a reminder to the church and wider community that here in the Pacific, the inter-relatedness of all creation reflected traditional teachings and values of the diverse cultures within the region. Addressed also was the Biblical belief that God’s promise to Noah would never be broken, thus islands at the risk of rising sea levels would never go under. “This is not an act of God,” but the result of highly industrialized countries polluting the atmosphere with their emissions, was the resounding reply from the Otin Tai declaration. Recommendations were made for Pacific churches, PCC Secretariat, World Council of Churches, Pacific Governments, Governments in highly industrialized countries, along with fossil fuel and energy companies on what actions were to be taken on account of the impacts of human-induced climate change within the region.

The Otin Taai +20 conference offered a space for church leaders, theologians, climate justice experts, activists and advocates and partner agencies to take stock of the impacts of climate change in the two decades since the prophetic voice of the Pacific on Climate Change was first raised to the world. Participants reflected, reaffirmed and redesigned a common course for ecological stewardship amid escalating environmental crises resulting from climate change, intensifying societal ills, and ongoing human rights violations and ecocide within the Pacific region. It was an opportunity to combine theology with indigenous values and experiences to confront the dominant economic paradigms which have resulted in economical, ecological and ecumenical discordance, and foster new pathways and multi- stakeholder collaboration to address climate justice and its cross cutting issues.

The resulting Tuākoi ‘Lei Declaration (Tuākoi ‘Lei  is the Tuvaluan phrase for “Good Neighbour” or “Loving Neighbour”) is not only a follow-up to the Otin Taai Declaration, but a cry, “that the world has not listened to our cries.”  It is a telling of stories of the impacts of Climate Change in the Pacific today; discernment based on a reflection of the question of “who is my neighbour? Who is my Tuākoi ‘Lei?” in the context of the Climate Emergency and a path towards Pasifika Climate Justice through a call towards an Oceanian Tuākoi ‘Lei, based on neighbourly love, compassion and hope in the context of the climate emergency.

Following are excerpts from the Tuākoi ‘Lei Declaration:

“What We See:

Our stories are the lived realities of the science of climate change and the result of a lack of commitment and action to reduce carbon emissions, phase out fossil fuels and change from unsustainable lifestyles and development models.

In the islands of Otin Taai, Kiribati, geographically isolated, severe sea-level rise and coastal erosion have deeply impacted the livelihoods and culture of its people. Bikeman Island is now completely submerged while other islands are becoming uninhabitable and forcing communities to relocate, disrupting traditional lifestyles and knowledge systems. Drastic changes in weather patterns have led to significant droughts that affect water supply and agriculture. Last year, breadfruit trees, a dietary staple, died off. This year freshwater supplies have become saline.

In the Marshall Islands, Jaluit Atoll has experienced flooding in houses and school campuses due to king tides and a severe drought has been complicating their already critical water crisis for the past months. Kili Atoll, experiences flooding from rising groundwater. The Runit Dome in Enewatak Atoll, which contains radioactive waste from US nuclear testing, is beginning to crack and corrode due to rising sea levels, posing a severe threat not just locally but potentially across the Pacific.

In the larger islands of Melanesia environmental degradation continues despite the increasing impacts of climate change. While churches and civil society work to empower indigenous communities on climate change and environmental justice, corruption and unjust political systems ignore processes such as free, prior and informed consent of customary landowners, which also leads to land grabs and internal displacement. Perpetrating states continue to seek to silence Pacific countries on these issues through offers of aid and development assistance.

Across our islands, an unhealthy focus on economic development and profit for a few, instead of the wellbeing of many, has encouraged extractive industries which lead to further environmental crises and exacerbate the impacts of climate change.

We visited the Fijian coastal community of Togoru, where the ocean encroaches into the land at a rate of approximately 1 metre a year. We listened to how the long-standing cries of people of Togoru, to preserve their livelihoods and generational home from the encroaching sea, have gone virtually ignored. We knelt together in prayer on the sands of Togoru settlement and lamented the exploitative and extractive systems of neo-colonialism and enduring colonialism that continue to exacerbate the plight of many of our Pacific brothers and sisters experiencing climate change.

We note with great urgency, the intensifying frequency of extreme weather patterns and slow onset events caused by climate change within each of our communities. We are no longer the “canary in the coal mine” and time is running out for all of us. Our cry for justice is not only for ourselves but for God’s precious biodiversity, of which we are a part. 

A global ecological conversion is long overdue in this time of ecocide*.

(…)

God has called creation out of the chaos of ocean covered earth, yet the actions of fossil fuelled greed, selfishness and apathy, manifested as extractive industries and economic globalization are driving us back to chaos as we experience the ocean rising to reclaim the earth, our common home. 

We call the world to embody neighbourly love, compassion and hope, which are needed more than ever to turn the tide for climate and ecological justice.

(…)

Recognizing the need to address loss and damage through pastoral care, especially the psychological, spiritual and emotional trauma resulting from climate change -

VII. We call for Pacific churches to work with partners to develop a network for trauma counselling that addresses the fear, worry, distress and damage caused by climate change and climate induced migration.

(…) 

• Recognizing the need for solidarity as tuākoi ‘lei (Good and Loving Neighbours) -

1. We reaffirm the call for a just transition towards a fossil fuel free world.
2. We call on financial institutions and church financial units to divest from fossil fuel projects or the development of fossil fuels. 
3. We call for an international ecocide law under the Roman statute and to make international ecocide a national crime. 
4. We reaffirm our ongoing stand against deep sea mining.
5. We seek to secure community led climate financing alternatives towards practical and tangible climate related activities.”

The full text of the Declaration can be found here: https://unitingworld.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/TUAKOI-‘LEI-DECLARATION.pdf

*Ecocide is broadly understood as mass damage and destruction of nature, a root cause of the climate and ecological emergency that we now face.  A legal definition of Ecocide is, “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”

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James Bhagwan is the General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches.