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Bishop’s Commission on

Climate Change

Responding to the urgent global and local needs of the current environmental crisis, the Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change, comprising more than 20 members appointed from across the diocese, is actively engaged in these priorities:

  • Advocating for a better response in the U.S. to climate change priorities
  • Educating diocesan congregations, schools, institutions, and individuals in addressing climate change
  • Engaging General Convention legislation calling dioceses, congregations, and individuals to action
  • Increasing preparedness for natural disasters and responsiveness when they occur

In addition, the Commission is bringing attention to intersections of food insecurity and racial justice; tracking of federal, statewide, regional and local legislation; and development of an anthology of online resources. The role of youth and young adults, together with local schools and seminaries is also key.

Impetus for launching the Commission in March 2022 includes Diocesan Convention’s 2021 Margaret Parker given by Mary Nichols, parishioner of St. James’, Los Angeles, and a former longtime chair of the California Air Resources Board, who spoke just after her return from the United Nations COP26 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. View her lecture here.

Please scroll down for Episcopal News coverage on Climate Change, the Commission and its work.

Resource Guide

Academia

  • Caltech’s Resnick Sustainability Institute “advances global sustainability through transformational science, engineering, and education. We prioritize research across campus that addresses challenges and opportunities associated with climate change and the stewardship of natural resources. The fundamental insights gained are directed towards implementation and scale-up for real-world impact.”
  • UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions “partners with communities to build resilience to the adverse health effects of climate change.”
  • UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability (IoES) “moves science to action on the front lines of environmental progress. Using Los Angeles and California as a testbed, IoES promises solutions for the broader world—and our commitment to communications makes sure our ideas are heard.”
  • UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge
  • USC Center for Sustainability Solutions “develops policy, technological, and behavioral solutions to the most pressing sustainability problems of the Southern California region and the world.  It brings together scholars and stakeholders from sustainability organizations around the world to collaborate on basic and applied research aimed at making a real-world impact.”
  • Yale Program on Climate Change Communications “conducts scientific research on public climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy preferences, and behavior, and the underlying psychological, cultural, and political factors that influence them. We also engage the public in climate change science and solutions, in partnership with governments, media organizations, companies, and civil society, and with a daily, national radio program, Yale Climate Connections.”

Articles

Blogs

Books

  • Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love – Elizabeth Johnson
  • Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall
  • Creation Care and the Gospel: Reconsidering the Mission of the Church – Collin Bell and Robert S White, eds.
  • Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home – Pope Francis
  • Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith and Practice – Chad Meyers, ed.
  • All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis – Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, et al, eds.
  • Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet – Johan Rockstrom and Owen Gaffney
  • Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It – Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith and Max Wilbert
  • Climate: A New Story – Charles Eisenstein
  • Intersectional Environmentalism: How to dismantle systems of oppression to protect people and planet – Leah Thomas
  • Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist – Kate Raworth
  • The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path to Climate Disruption – Dahr Jamail
  • No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference – Greta Thunberg
  • Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World – Katharine Hayhoe
  • Shrinking the Earth: The Rise and Decline of Natural Abundance – Donald Worster
  • The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability—Designing for Abundance – William MacDonough and Michael Braungart
  • What We’re Fighting for Now is Each Other: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Justice – Wen Stephenson

Ecumenical

  • A Rocha International – “A Rocha is a global family of conservation organizations working together, in response to the worldwide crisis of biodiversity loss, to carry out community-based conservation projects.”
  • California Interfaith Power and Light – “Organizing a statewide religious response to climate change, since 2000.”
  • Care of Creation – “Our mission is to pursue a God-centered response to environmental challenges that brings glory to the Creator, advances the cause of Christ, and leads to a transformation of the people and the land that sustains them.”
  • Green the Church – Standing at the Intersection of the Black Church and the Environmental Movement
  • Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network “exists to empower Christian individuals and churches all over the globe to take action on Creation Care.”

Government

  • C40 Cities—”A global network of mayors taking urgent action to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone can thrive.”
  • California Energy Commission (CEC) – “Leading the state to a 100% clean energy future for all.”
  • California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) “works collaboratively with public agencies, communities, and stakeholders to achieve sustainability, equity, economic prosperity, and quality of life for all. SGC also administers a suite of grant programs funded through California Climate Investments – a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions while providing a variety of other benefits – particularly in disadvantaged communities.”
  • California Sustainable Communities & Climate Protection Program (California Air Resources Board) – “The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375) supports the State’s climate goals by helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions through coordinated transportation, housing, and land use planning. “
  • Energy Upgrade California “is a statewide initiative committed to helping Californians be more energy efficient, utilize more sustainable natural resources, reduce demand on the energy grid and make informed choices about their energy use at home and at work—all of which goes a long way for California.”
  • LA City Environmental Programs – “The City of Los Angeles is dedicated to ensuring that we harness our natural resources efficiently and effectively, while providing a clean, healthy, and safe City for present and future generations of Angelenos.”
  • LA’s Green New Deal “Our battle against climate change is a moral imperative, an environmental emergency, and an economic opportunity. Los Angeles is rising to the occasion with a plan that will lead the world toward a low-carbon, green-energy future. This is L.A.’s Green New Deal.”
  • LA County Chief Sustainability Office “provides comprehensive and coordinated policy support and guidance for the Board of Supervisors, County Departments, the unincorporated areas, and the region to make our communities healthier, more livable, economically stronger, more equitable, more resilient, and more sustainable.”
  • LA County Sustainability Plan (Our County) “is a regional sustainability plan for Los Angeles. It is the boldest county sustainability plan in the nation.”
  • LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP)– “Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Water and power utilities have a responsibility to protect and foster the sustainability of our natural resources. LADWP embraces this responsibility as we foster environmental sustainability while providing reliable, affordable electricity, and water.”
  • LA Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance (NCSA) advances sustainability and resilience across Los Angeles through advocacy, sharing of best practices, and community action. We hold regular public forums and events, and collaborate with neighborhood councils, public agencies, and environmental and other community organizations to support effective engagement on LA’s Green New Deal, climate action, and other timely sustainability issues.
  • South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) Environmental Justice Program aims “to ensure that everyone has the right to equal protection from air pollution and fair access to the decision-making process that works to improve the quality of air within their communities.”
  • Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Sustainability Program “works actively with Southern California communities and stakeholders to create a dynamic regional growth vision based on the principles of mobility, livability, prosperity and sustainability. The program’s work focuses on implementing the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy, the state-mandated plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks through integrated transportation, land use, housing and environmental planning.”

NGOs

  • CHERP Solar Works – “Our mission is to extend the reach of renewable energy to economically disadvantaged communities.  We’re dedicated to creating green-sector jobs—particularly for those with barriers to entry in the workforce. We aim to stimulate local economies, pursue environmental justice and achieve greenhouse gas reductions.”
  • Citizens Climate Lobby “is a climate change organization that exists to create the political will for a livable world by enabling individual breakthroughs in the exercise of personal and political power.”
  • Clean Power Alliance (CPA) – “We partner with local leaders to help bring access to clean power to everyone in Southern California. 32 communities across Los Angeles and Ventura counties have opted for clean power through CPA.”
  • Countdown to a Healthier Future – “Countdown is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action.”
  • Grid Alternatives “envisions a rapid, equitable transition to a world powered by renewable energy that benefits everyone. Our mission is to build community-powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through renewable energy.”
  • Institute for Ecological Civilization “promotes long-term solutions for the wellbeing of people and the planet.”
  • LA Conservation Corps “is an environmentally-focused youth development organization, which is the largest urban conservation corps in the country. We provide opportunities for young adults throughout Los Angeles who are out-of-work and out-of-school to explore new pathways to meaningful career and education opportunities while improving the quality of life in Southern California.”
  • Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) was “founded as an economic development initiative by the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) to create an inclusive green economy for the people of Los Angeles by: unlocking innovation by working with startups to accelerate the commercialization of clean technologies; transforming markets through partnerships with policymakers, innovators, and market leaders in transportation, energy and sustainable cities; and enhancing communities through workforce development, pilots, and other programs.
  • Pando Populus is “the non-profit developing civic engagement opportunities to implement [the Los Angeles County sustainability plan]. We give people the tools they need to make courageous things happen for the LA basin and its people.”
  • Resilience Alliance “is an international, multidisciplinary research organization that explores the dynamics of social-ecological systems. RA members collaborate across disciplines to advance the understanding and practical application of resilience, adaptive capacity, and transformation of societies and ecosystems in order to cope with change and support human well-being.”
  • Resilient Cities Catalyst aims “to create catalytic change to help cities solve their most pressing challenges…[and to] ensure that all residents—particularly the most vulnerable—are safer, healthier and thriving in the face of everyday stresses and able to withstand and recover from acute shocks.”
  • Sierra Club Angeles Chapter
  • US Green Building Council LA (USBG LA) is “[t]he best place for anyone to learn the “why”, “who” and “how” of living sustainably, because business as usual is no longer an option.”

Organizations & Other Resources

Tools

Download Resource Guide

Commission Chair

The Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy | Contact: email

Commission Participants

In addition to Bishop John Harvey Taylor and The Rev. Can. Melissa McCarthy, commission participants include:

  • Canon Robert Williams, diocesan staff liaison and canon for common life; parishioner at St. James in the City, Los Angeles.

The commission meets virtually each month.

More Information: