During the 2024 General Conference of The United Methodist Church, creation care legislation approved by delegates brought net-zero commitments into church law and polity. The denomination added new guides and imperatives into both the Book of Resolutions and the Book of Discipline, passing the General Conference committees and plenary by whopping margins: 85% and 91%.
Two key priorities emerged: a pledge of support to achieve net zero and the mandate to establish a Caretakers of God’s Creation Coordinator position in every annual conference. Christian people have long understood the natural world as God’s own creation. They have also understood their role as caretakers of this Earth. As our society is drawn back to the essential need to care for our planet, it is vital that local churches and local communities be given the tools and resources needed to meet net zero and sustainability goals.
This new position, the Caretaker of God’s Creation Coordinator, will be an essential part of the faithful work of annual conferences moving forward.
What is “net zero”?
The term “net zero” can be heard just about everywhere. But, what exactly is net zero, and what does it have to do with agencies, bishops, and church?
The idea of net zero came from scientists who sought to better understand and communicate how rising carbon emissions in the atmosphere were unbalancing the carbon cycle. For the last two and a half million years, the carbon levels have been stable at about 280 ppm (parts per million).
This stability has maintained through the rise of humankind over the last 400,000 years. Then, over the last 100,000 years, this stability has supported the flourishing of human civilization.
You could say the conditions have been perfect. This stable climate allowed humans to count on just the right amount of rain and heat to develop settled societies and agriculture. Over thousands of years humans have praised these planetary cycles:
Let us fear the Lord our God, who provides rain in autumn and spring and assures us of a harvest in its season.
—Jeremiah 5:24
Then, in just the last 150 years, humans started burning fossil fuels for energy. Within decades, there was concern about what this action might mean for Earth’s climate balance.
Scientists began to issue warnings and then started hollering about the amount of greenhouse gases the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries were releasing into the atmosphere—turns out big agricultural practices were trouble too. Human activity that scaled up across the globe was and is emitting carbon, and this carbon pollution has a destabilizing effect on the Earth’s climate.
Sometimes this planet, our Earth, is referred to as the Goldilocks planet. The balance here is “just right” for human communities to flourish. As a person of faith, I might call this a “stewardship” planet. As any good shepherd, God established a balance so the flock, and life, can thrive.
Part of that balance is the carbon cycle. Carbon is an essential building block of living things—plants, plankton, pandas, and people. “Just right” amounts of carbon are important. “Too much” is “too hot” and “too cold.”
Scientists worked decades to communicate this problem, and for the 2014 IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) they needed to show that the atmosphere was overfilled. Carbon emissions had to stop. They coined the term “net zero” and warned that adding any more carbon increased the risk of worsening outcomes for our planet.
Net zero means that, while the natural carbon cycle might still ebb and flow a little with the seasons—as forests grow, then drop their winter leaves—this ebb and flow must equal zero new carbon added to the system.
If the carbon level in the atmosphere were water in a bucket, you would pour a little in and pour a little out, keeping it balanced.
The trouble we are in is that we are adding more and more carbon to our bucket, and it is now cracking, seeping, and overflowing. We need to empty our bucket by at least a third just to get back to where we were.
The idea of net zero, then, means there can be zero more carbon added to the atmosphere. Our activities must ultimately be carbon neutral. If we put another drop in the bucket, then we must also get that drop back out again. Every extra drop adds to the disasters that are already happening, including flooding and fires and droughts and, worse, these effects hurt the vulnerable most of all.
What is a faithful response?
We must respond with faithful and urgent action. As people of faith, we belong to the Creator. In Genesis our Creator gave us clear instructions. It is our responsibility to ensure the Earth and its creatures are “fruitful and multiply.”
Yet instead of multiplying, Earth’s species are being threatened. Bird and insect populations are plummeting, natural spaces are disappearing, and we are facing a sixth great extinction.
Our United Methodist bishops have called us to attend to this. Our boards and agencies have made a commitment and are taking actionable steps. The grassroots membership of the church is sending up an urgent call for action. And General Conference has spoken. We must take moral action to address carbon emissions and climate change.
This legislation is designed to help
The legislation passed at General Conference in 2024 speaks to our values, lays out the imperatives, and leads us to take actionable steps toward achieving net zero in our churches and in our lives.
The truth of it is this: Our churches must get climate-real and climate-ready. We must not continue to contribute to the harm oozing from the overflowing bucket of carbon in our atmosphere. We must shift to clean energy and be energy efficient. We must mobilize for action. We must do so for ourselves, for our children, for future generations, and for our love of our Creator. Amen.
Learn more about net zero and the path to get there in a new devotional study guide for congregations, Net Zero Legislation General Conference 2024 Study Guide. This guide is designed to support the efforts of local church leaders as all work together toward net zero goals and sustainability in the church.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. For more conversations, see the team at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement Cafe. Find Richenda in Southern Oregon and at JustCreation.org.