The impact you made in 2016
Christian Aid campaigner Luke Harman reflects on the impact your voices have made throughout 2016 and why Christian Aid will continue campaigning alongside you for a just world in 2017.
Throughout Christian Aid’s 70 year history we’ve been striving together for a fair and just world in which all God’s people can flourish. As we look back on another year we are still striving. We still believe in life before death. And we’ll continue to stand alongside the poor and marginalised like Jesus did.
Throughout our history, we’ve worked with others to challenge the systems that keep people poor. Whether supporting our partners campaigning on land rights issues in India, building international networks to tackle issues like tax dodging and the South African apartheid, or forming coalitions to Make Poverty History; we’re committed to campaigning on the issues that can lift people out of poverty. 2016 was no different, and none of it was possible without your support and your involvement.
2016 has no doubt been challenging, and for many people the future feels very uncertain, but here’s a look back at some seeds of hope sown for a better tomorrow.
January
Climate change is now one of the greatest challenges we face, disrupting the balance of God’s beautiful creation and causing harm to our sisters and brothers around the world.
And it was this that was on the agenda at the start of 2016, which began on a wave of optimism on the back of the Paris Agreement, in which 195 countries agreed to take necessary action to limit global warming to below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This landmark agreement provides a great opportunity to bring about the kind of world we’ve been striving for.
Tackling tax dodging too has seen huge progress over the past seven years as Christian Aid campaigners — people like you — brought the issue to the fore. By 2016, far from being a niche financial issue, tax dodging became mainstream media news and caused public outcry in recognition of the lost billions that could help pay for public services — which in poorer countries can be the difference between life and death. The public discourse has very much changed — often the first step in deeper policy change.
And so, in January, as part of our Sourced campaign, people up and down the UK began calling on local councils to use their power as procurers of billions of pounds of goods and services, to ensure better tax practices from companies. More on that later.
February
Care for creation has been present in Christian teaching for centuries. In recent decades people of faith have been speaking out against the degradation of God’s earth and for the rights of our global neighbours affected by a changing climate. This is an issue of justice that calls us to action in the name of God.
In February, churches continued this advocacy by taking practical actions to lower their collective carbon footprint through the Eco Church Award scheme and by switching to clean electricity with the Big Church Switch. These two initiatives gave (and continue to give) churches opportunities to care for creation as part of their congregational mission. As Martin Williams, Rector at St James’ Gerrards Cross and Fulmer says of Eco Church:
it’s a means through which we come to worship God more deeply — and to bear witness to His wonderful creation.
In Wales, the Environment (Wales) Bill was passed, setting a target for emissions to be reduced by at least 80% by 2050. And then on Valentine’s Day the UK was flooded with green hearts as the public showed their love for our common home by raising awareness of the people and places threatened by climate change across the world.
March
Churches continued to act on climate change throughout Lent and both the UK Government and the media began to take notice. Christian Aid and Tearfund were asked to meet with the Department of Energy and Climate Change about the Big Church Switch and the campaign generated column inches in both the church and secular press, including the New Statesman, the Daily Telegraph and even as far as the Washington Post!
Ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary election, we set out a number of manifesto policy recommendations and persuaded many parties to make climate commitments. Following this the Scottish Government is due to publish a climate plan early next year, setting out their actions to tackle climate change. This is expected to be followed by proposals for a new Climate Change Bill.
April
As the media went into a frenzy over the Panama Papers exposé, Christian Aid supporters should again take credit for having helped push the issue of tax dodging so far up the agenda. As stories and scandals emerged, thousands of campaigners called on the UK Government to ensure that all seven British Overseas Territories with financial centres — places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands — establish public registers of company ownership so that nobody can avoid the taxman. This is something campaigners like you had already persuaded the UK government to implement in 2015.
Meanwhile out of the sight of the press, campaigners met with local councillors on the issue of tax dodging, influencing decisions and encouraging discussions at a local level adding even more noise to the growing calls for tax justice.
You can hear from one campaigner, Helen Collinson about what happened when she asked her local council to support the Sourced campaign in Devon.
May
Following the Panama Papers leaks, Prime Minister David Cameron hosted an Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May.
Together with Oxfam, Action Aid and other tax campaigners we built our very own giant tax haven. We turned Trafalgar Square tropical whilst the summit was happening nearby to highlight that clamping down on tax havens must be a key part of tackling corruption.
We then delivered 250,000 signatures to Number 10 to further illustrate the public’s desire to see action on tax dodging, especially on the UK’s own overseas territories.
You can read about the UK Government’s response in this blog.
June
Whilst the EU referendum dominated the news, a small but powerful change to UK law (known as the #ShowMeTheMoney Amendment) was debated in the UK Parliament. This amendment would require companies to report publicly on their profits made and taxes paid in every country where they operate. This will help developing countries collect the tax owed to them and thereby provide citizens with the kind of services — such as healthcare, education and water sanitation — that we take for granted.
Campaigners contacted MPs in the days before the debate and encouraged them to vote for the amendment. Although the vote was narrowly lost, your voices gave a mandate to MPs to pursue the issue further and gave our Parliamentary team a strong backing on which to keep lobbying.
Debates and discussions continued and eventually a different amendment was introduced in October giving the UK Government the power to introduce legislation for public country-by-country reporting later. This simply wouldn’t have been possible without people getting involved and contacting their MPs.
July
Roseanna Cunningham, Scottish Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform published an exclusive statement for Christian Aid Scotland, announcing that Scotland had exceeded its 2020 target for cutting greenhouse gases six years early. This sets a great example that many other governments need to follow.
Over the summer we launched a new campaign to highlight the plight of people seeking refuge from conflict and crises. Hundreds of Christian Aid supporters — many of whom are already involved in supporting refugees in their own communities — wrote to newspapers to change the story about refugees. These campaigners wrote letters that challenged the de-humanising rhetoric in some parts of the media used to describe our sisters and brothers who are fleeing crises across the world.
By remembering our shared humanity and celebrating those who are offering and those who seek a welcome, we believe we can change the story about refugees. There is lots still to do to change the story — you can find out more and get involved here.
August
Throughout the summer, our work to change the story about refugees continued, both at Greenbelt Festival and the National Eisteddfod in Wales, where the Bishop of Monmouth, the Right Reverend Richard Pain, shared his story of people he’s met who have taken refuge in Wales.
September
And in September more than 500 people attended the Refugees Welcome Summit in Birmingham, learning and perfecting the art of storytelling and pledging to go back into their communities and change the story around refugees using the art of conversation.
Changing a perception within the public discourse is certainly not a quick or easy thing to do and this just the start. But when I look to the amazing shift we’ve achieved together in public discourse around tax (although clearly a very different issue) it shows how perceptions can change.
Meanwhile churches continued to switch to clean electricity and by September more than 3,500 churches had switched or pledged to do so since the start of the year!
These switches mean millions of pounds have been moved away from fossil fuels and into the kind of clean energy that can bring about a world in which we can all thrive, not just survive.
Renewable energy technology has the potential to not only help us tackle climate change but also bring light and electricity to parts of the world where this hasn’t been possible before, such as rural villages in Mali.
We need this shift in money to happen on a bigger scale, and so in September we also launched a new report on ‘Financing our future’. This new research shows that the World Bank has been further financing coal power stations. Together with our partners we shared our findings with the World Bank and challenged their activities. Now we’re working with our friends across three continents to develop regional plans to help make this big shift happen on a global scale.
October
Back in the UK hundreds of Christian Aid supporters organised events as part of the Speak Up week of action on climate change. From nature walks and tea parties to community energy visits, more than 150 events took place, two thirds of which were attended by local MPs.
These events highlighted the breadth of support for action on climate change, developed local relationships and called for the UK Government to implement an ambitious low-carbon investment plan.
Our feedback from MPs themselves is that these events have made a lasting impression and we expect an announcement on a low-carbon investment plan in the first quarter of 2017.
Some of our Speak Up highlights
- Welsh Assembly member Rhun ap Iorwerth was lobbied by a group of school children at the Holyhead Churches Together annual schools service. He went back to Cardiff Bay and tabled a motion to endorse the Paris Agreement and get Wales on track towards being a zero-carbon nation. This was debated by the entire Assembly, and accepted unanimously.
- A ‘Care for Creation Conference’ organised jointly with the Church of Scotland and World Mission, provided the platform for local citizens to hear directly about the impacts of climate change from Cecilia Cordova, from Christian Aid’s programme in Bolivia.
- A range of supporters (representing all those involved across the UK) met with Nick Hurd MP, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This included Evie Jarrett, 9, who won a climate change poetry competition, Women’s Institute members, faith representatives and members of a community energy initiative. The minister was visibly moved after meeting these genuinely passionate supporters, and told them:
the conversations you are having over cake or a walk are really, very important.
You can relive the week of action in this short highlights reel.
November
November was another busy month. Firstly the Paris Agreement was formally ratified by the UK Government, reinforcing the UK’s commitment to tackle climate change. Now we need more concrete actions to make this a reality; concrete actions like churches switching to clean electricity.
During November we released another report: ‘Our future in their plans’ highlighting the extent to which private financial institutions are taking concrete actions in line with the Paris Agreement.
Simultaneously thousands of campaigners contacted the biggest banks in the UK calling on them to make the Big Shift in how they use our money.
Our money — trillions of pounds in total — could be powering the rise of clean energy that we all need to combat climate change. But instead our money is financing projects that support the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, which fuel climate change, and threaten the lives of our sisters and brothers.
We’ve been speaking to the banks over the summer, and now with the added weight of your voices they’re starting to pay attention. We’ve got big plans for the new year, can you get involved?
Meanwhile at the UN climate talks in Marrakech, governments focussed on the same issue of turning political will into reality.
Many poorer countries on the frontline of climate change announced new plans to speed up the global transition to a low-carbon world, including the 48 most vulnerable countries pledging to switch to 100% renewable energy by 2050. These countries may not be big in terms of GDP but they are titans when it comes to global leadership.
Richer nations must follow their example.
Above all these talks were filled with much-needed hope. Despite the turbulence of global politics, in Marrakesh, rather than being rattled, countries seemed to harden their resolve to work together to solve the climate crisis.
December
As Christmas approached, Christian Aid supporters up and down the land took part in special services for our Christmas Appeal, and thousands of people added their names to giant four-foot-tall Christmas cards. Each card was destined for Number 10 Downing Street with a message to the Prime Minister to help light the way for people fleeing violence, fear and desperation by ensuring both her words and her government’s policies offer hope to those looking for a safe place to call home.
By the close of the year Christian Aid campaigners had persuaded 12 councils to take action for tax justice as part of the Sourced Campaign. Birmingham City Council, the largest local council in Europe, has also agreed to consider it. This may seem small, but councils spend a huge amount of money on goods and services, meaning they have a lot of influence on company practice.
In Northern Ireland, a sustained local effort saw the campaign snowball and the Finance Minister agreed to implement the additional questions into procurement policies for the whole of the public sector in Northern Ireland.
Over time we are confident that as an increasing number of councils ask these more rigorous and wide-ranging tax questions to the companies they do business with, it will send a clear signal to these companies that councils and their local citizens will not tolerate tax dodging that hurts society and unfairly hurts the poorest the most.
We’ve got big plans for 2017
- With Eco Church’s Green Communion in February, we’ll be celebrating the scheme so far and encouraging even more churches to get involved in taking practical steps to care for God’s earth.
- We’ll be running local training events for the Big Shift campaign so that together we can develop plans to get the campaign noticed in your area.
- Join us for another Speak Up week of action from 1–9 July 2017.
We’ll keep striving and keep campaigning for a world in which all God’s people can live life in all its fullness.
I hope you’ll continue to strive with us.
