September 23, 2009

NEW YORK – The inequities and injustices that are likely to occur on a global level because of climate change mean that world leaders must carefully examine the moral and ethical dimensions of global warming, said Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"The impacts of climate change are going to be inequitable, unequal, and severe in many parts of the world," said Dr. Pachauri, who spoke today at a breakfast meeting at the Baha'i International Community offices.

"We have to think at a much higher level. And I think this is where ethics comes in so critically as the missing dimension in this debate," he said.

Dr. Pachauri's comments came at the official launch of an appeal, directed at world leaders gathered at this week's UN Summit on Climate Change, to emphasize the importance of the moral and ethical dimensions of global warming and its impact in their deliberations.

The appeal was drafted by the Baha'i International Community and has been signed by 25 nongovernmental organizations, religious groups, and policy institutes. The document calls on world leaders to "consider deeply the ethical and moral questions at the root of the climate change crisis."

"The quest for climate justice is not a competition for limited resources but part of an unfolding process towards greater degrees of unity among nations as they endeavor to build a sustainable, just and peaceful civilization," the appeal states.

Tahirih Naylor, a Baha'i representative to the United Nations, said the purpose of the document is to call attention to the fact that climate change is more than a political, economic and scientific problem.

Baha'i World News Service