NIFEA partners urge G20 leaders to tackle crises

The five partners in the NIFEA effort have sent a letter to the G20 leaders, urging them “to ‘recover together’ and ‘recover stronger'” from intertwined crises as a global community.

Noting three interlocking crises—social, climate, and economic—along with “an alarming food crises,” the letter states, “We need an economic system that is equitable, respects planetary boundaries, involves the participation of all and nourishes the health and resiliency of our communities and ecosystems.”

The letter lists the following measures for the G20 to pursue:

• Adopt new economic and wellbeing indicators that deliver better outcomes for people and the planet and place them at the centre of policymaking.
• Stronger rules to curb financial speculation on food, energy, and other vital commodities.
• Adequate social protection for the socio-economically vulnerable (including children, the aged, and those unable to work) and support to small farmers.
• An end to subsidies to giant agri-businesses and the fossil fuel industry coupled with fast-tracked and tripled investments in sustainable, community-based agricultural and renewable energy systems.
• Cancellation of unsustainable debts and a moratorium on debt payments for low and middle-income countries in debt distress while their debts are being renegotiated.
• A stronger global effort of cooperation to realize systems of just taxation to raise resources to fund social protection systems and the public investments needed to address the climate emergency.

“For churches, the fullness of life and all that contributes to it are essential to our faith and practice. Through the NIFEA process, we seek an economic system that looks after the well-being of all and particularly the most vulnerable, while bringing us back within planetary boundaries, protecting the diversity of life, and safeguarding the future of coming generations. Our faith perspectives and valuing of justice and peace demand that the poor and the dispossessed lie at the centre of our economic thinking and that our economic systems also work to serve their needs,” the letter states.

The New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA) is a collaborative ecumenical effort that brings together the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Methodist Council, and the Council for World Mission. It is partially supported by funding from Otto per Mille.

The G20 leaders will hold a summit in Bali, Indonesia, on 15-16 November.

• Read the full letter.

_{Image: Paul Jeffrey/Life on Earth}