By Archbishop Philip Freier and Archbishop Thabo Cecil Makgoba

[The Age] On Monday, the General Synod of the Church of England will likely pass two motions calling for urgent and bold action against climate change. The first urges all governments at the Paris Climate Negotiations to take bold action by transitioning to a low-carbon future and encourages the church to actively engage with the climate change issue, and the second affirms the recent decision to disinvest from coal and oil sands as a tactic to address the climate crisis.

As Anglican leaders of Australia and South Africa – two countries that have found themselves on the front lines of climate change – we celebrate these important and timely calls for climate action, based on our moral imperative to care for all of God's creation and the most vulnerable among us.

Both Australia and South Africa are already experiencing the negative impacts of rising global temperatures. Australia is one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the world – we've seen double the amount of record hot days over the last 50 years, an increase in the frequency and intensity of weather events, a rising sea level, and further endangerment of our fragile coral reef and marine ecosystems. The story is similar in South Africa, where temperatures have risen over 1.5 times the global average over the past half century and are predicted to rise by 3-6 degrees Celcius in some areas by 2100.

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