Thinking Beyond an Apocalypse

Martin Palmer, founder and president of Faithinvest advocates an environmental politics that takes us beyond doom, gloom, sin and failure, and into a ‘just transition’. 

In 2022 at the Egypt COP an unusual network of partners came together to launch the world’s first ever Multi-Faith Just Transition Fund. Faithinvest – the largest network of faith investors, the ACT Alliance (a network of over 140 Christian development agencies), the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (largely Islamic) and many other faith based investment groups agreed that such a Fund was needed. 

 Why? 

 The faiths, especially Christianity in its many forms, have been the most engaged in disinvestment and disinvestment advocacy and lobbying for disinvestment from fossil fuels, of any sector of Civil Society. From Religious Orders pulling out their modest but hard earned capital to the Church Commissioners creating a carbon neutral tracking system for faith investors, it has been the religious who have fuelled action on disinvestment. 

 This has been important but it is the start, not the end. 

 Because one of the real questions is what happens to the funds withdrawn? Are they then invested in funding alternatives to current fossil fuel driven economies? Do they go into sustainable energy, food, etc? 

 Indeed, where are the rest of the faith investments – the ones not in fossil fuels? How Faith-consistent is their investment given that every major faith tradition has now created environmental guidelines and teachings based on their own beliefs and values? As the report ‘Good Intentions’ by Faithinvest highlighted, less than 50% of faiths invest in line with their own teachings on environmental and social justice principles.  

 On top of this is the emerging evidence that to fund and support the shift from fossil fuels to an alternative and functional economy, we are pillaging some of the poorest countries for their metals and minerals which are so essential to this ‘alternative digital economy’.  

 Climate change can no longer be just about not burning fossil fuels, but increasingly about what alternative economics could look like that might actually work.  

 Early in this election runup period this has come to bite political leaders. The Labour Party’s declaration about the shift from fossil fuels provoked the SNP – and even the LibDems to protest – what about the jobs in Scotland involved in fossil fuel? Turning to energy security, issues arise about how to sustain an economy and jobs that rely on energy at reasonable prices. How does a Government address climate issues of the future without destroying the livelihoods of many of its people in the present? Or to put it another way, given the way climate is biting us now and increasingly deeply affecting areas in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa, how can we make sure that they don’t now suffer from new extraction industries in order to make us feel better about moving away from fossil fuels? 

 This is why the major faiths launched the Multi-Faith Just Transition Fund concept. It is still a concept but one which has been embraced by the Green Climate Fund – the major funding vehicle created out of the Paris Climate COP of 2025 to invest in adaptation and mitigation in the developing world – as a potential partnership vehicle for faiths and groups such as the GCF. 

 The key to why as Christians and why during this election we need to go beyond disinvestment and into alternative economics is that phrase ‘just transition.’ Closing down industries upon which we have depended but now wish to discard – for sound environmental reasons – must also deal with the emotional and economic crises this creates for millions of people. The rise of the digital world has brought new forms of oppression, exploitation and environmental destruction which we need to look at full in the face. 

 Christian social teaching is about solidarity with the powerless, the oppressed, the discarded. If we are not careful we will create new underclasses through simplistic actions which leave communities stranded – as happened to many areas in the UK as a result of the closures of the coal mines in the 80’s and 90’s. 

 As Christians we need to envisage a better economy which means new creative and yes industrial jobs to be invested in by us and by our faith investors, which will enable communities to be productive in new ways. We cannot simply tell them to stop and offer no real alternatives.  

 We also have a responsibility to confront apocalyptic thinking! The emphasis on doom, gloom, sin and failure, so beloved of evangelical preachers, is bad theology and bad psychology. No-one behaves better out of fear. Fear paralysis, and any study of the violence implicit within apocalyptic thinking (see for example Norman Cohn’s classic ‘The Pursuit of the Millennium’) should stand as a warning about simplistic righteous preaching predicated on fear of the end of the world. The major environmental movements, in their quest to be new religions, have leapt on sin, guilt and fear as classic religious tools. Sadly, they have tended to forget forgiveness, redemption, salvation, love and reconciliation. The result is that now there is a major push back within the environmental world on doomerism and the quest is on to show what opportunities there are for changes for the good. Indeed, as a number of recent studies have highlighted, generally we are beginning to turn in the right direction. But this needs support and encouragement. 

 So as we engage with our future MPs and government as voters and Christians, let’s not just ask them to denounce sin – burning fossil fuels – but ask them about what exciting new investment plans they have; how they will help overseas countries to adapt and to mitigate without being sold out to the digital energy economy and let’s ask for plans which involve not just transition – but just transition.