The Jewish Climate Change Campaign Pledge

The Jewish Climate Change Campaign:

This campaign will appear on the world’s stage alongside plans from many of the world’s religions at the request of The Alliance of Religions and Conservation, ARC. ARC is an umbrella non-profit organization based in the UK that seeks to inspire and mobilize the world’s religious communities to create a better world. It was founded on the belief that knowing what to do about the environment is not enough, a profound shift in values and vision to motivate us to act on our knowledge is essential. The values and vision of the world’s faiths can shift human behavior through inspiration and guidance.

To mobilize the resources of the world’s spiritual traditions ARC, in partnership with the United Nations, has invited each of the world’s major religions to write and commit to a seven-year sustainability plan detailing how each religion intends to mobilize its wisdom, resources and members to combat the ecological crisis. The seven-year timescale is a step towards generational change, beyond electoral cycles and short-term political horizons, towards the world that we leave our children.

The plans will be presented in November 2009 at a ceremony at Windsor Castle, England in front of an audience including the Queen and the Secretary General of the United Nations. This event precedes the global climate negotiations at the 15th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December 2009. The Copenhagen conference is intended to forge a post-Kyoto global consensus on responding and adapting to climate change. Many view it as a critical point in humanity’s efforts to create a livable future on this planet.

ARC has invited Hazon and Jewish Climate Initiative to take the lead in drafting a seven-year plan for the Jewish people. We hope that the plan will help to focus and amplify the diverse energies within the Jewish world that are turning to address this issue.

This campaign is a call to action, a call to demonstrate that the Jewish people can help light the way to more sustainable living. We are heirs to a tradition that believes that learning and discussion must lead to action. Read. Think about what we’ve written. Disagree. Strengthen what is here – but most of all, act. Be a link in the chain of bringing these words to fruition and of adding the next chapter in the Jewish people’s contribution to the world.

The Pledge 3275 People Have Signed So Far

YES: I believe that the Jewish People can and should play a distinct role in responding to climate change and fostering sustainability between now and September 2015 (the end of the next 7-year sabbatical cycle in the Jewish calendar);

YES: I call on all Jewish organizations, small and large, to create Green Teams that will draw up seven-year goals to effect change and specific steps to get started this year;

YES: I believe we must integrate education, action and advocacy. So I commit every month to learn more about the environment and about Jewish teachings on sustainability; to act by making more sustainable choices; and to advocate for generational change by speaking up to friends, family members, colleagues and opinion-leaders;

YES: I'll write to my elected representatives "I call on you and our government to build a more sustainable global economy; to support the creation of green jobs; to prioritize protecting vulnerable populations; and to ensure that the UN Climate Change Conference creates the strongest possible framework to ameliorate climate change."

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