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President of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association Signs Interfaith Climate Change Statement
by Raymond Lam, Buddhistdoor International, 2015-01-23
25/01/2015 11:46 (GMT+7)
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The Most Venerable Chi Wai, the president of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association, is a signatory to a climate change statement involving several of Hong Kong’s most influential religious leaders.

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The Most Venerable Chi Wai. From bodhi.takungpao.com.hk
 
The move comes after several months of negotiations to bring together the city’s largest religious institutions to issue a united proclamation on what many now see as the gravest threat to human survival in this century.
 
Other signatories include His Eminence Cardinal John Tong Hon (bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong), Master Leung Tak Wah (chairman of the Hong Kong Daoist Association), Reverend Yuen Tin Yau (chairperson of the Hong Kong Christian Council), Dr. Tong Yun Kai(president of the Confucian Academy), and Mr. Sat Che Sang Ibrahim (chairman of the Chinese Muslim Cultural and Fraternal Association). 

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From The Colloquium of Six Religious Leaders of Hong Kong
 
The statement, which is the first of its kind in Hong Kong, commits the six senior religious heads to accepting the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) and their conclusion that greenhouse gas emissions will cause devastating climate change at their current rate. 
 
The printed English translation of the Chinese document declares, “We, The Colloquium of Six Religious Leaders of Hong Kong, believe we have a shared responsibility for our planet. We must care for it as guardians of creation, so it continues to support not just ourselves, but the generations of life on earth to come.” According to the document, a global rise in temperature beyond two degrees Celsius will have “catastrophic consequences—threatening all of us and the natural world.”
 
The statement calls on world governments to act, noting that the least developed countries are at highest risk even with a rapid and decisive reduction in greenhouse emissions. It closes with a joint appeal from the six leaders to focus on “our shared responsibility rather than our differences,” most likely in reference to the deep disagreements between wealthy and poor nations at the United Nations summit in Lima in December 2014. At stake were the exact steps the countries should take to ameliorate climate change, and after extended negotiations diplomats thrashed out a “weak” agreement that could let countries dodge setting clear targets to cut emissions. This set an ominous precedent for the upcoming UN summit in Paris at the end of this year. 
 
Many fundamental disputes and dilemmas remain to be resolved, including the legal status of the Paris negotiations and demands from developing economies for more funding to deal with climate change.
 
“The biggest thing that is really, really unresolved is the money,” Michael Jacobs, visiting professor at LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, told The Telegraph. “The developed countries have got to find some way of showing they can provide the US$100 billion they promised, and at least some financial contribution post-2020. This is hard: this is a core demand of the developing countries but the hardest things [sic] for the developed countries, both because they don’t feel they have got so much money but also because it’s hard to budget ahead.”
 
As evidenced by their climate change statement, religious leaders in Hong Kong are now confronting the need to capture the urgency and importance of alleviating climate change in powerful theological language that will position faith as an apolitical but firm ally of the majority scientific opinion.
 
“This is a landmark statement for Hong Kong faith leaders on climate change, and probably the first such interfaith statement on climate change in Asia. It is important that faith leaders raise awareness on the moral imperative of climate change, globally and in Asia, and our shared responsibility to act,” said Ciara Shannon, Asia regional coordinator of Our Voices, a global multifaith climate movement that supports a strong climate agreement at the Paris climate talks.

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