Greenhouse gas emissions are a serious issue and the church is called to a faithful response. Greenhouse gas emissions, primarily arising from human behaviors, have the potential to cause adverse changes in the future global climate. Changing the historical trajectory requires changes in human behavior – our behavior, both corporate and individual. Addressing adverse climate change is a moral imperative, but how should we proceed? Divestment from fossil fuel companies has been proposed as a solution. Is divestment from an industry whose products we actively consume an appropriate, faithful response? Are there more faithful ways to address climate change while also encouraging economic development that benefits the poor?

Reliable, affordable energy enables our advanced society. It sustains our way of life, allowing us to clothe and feed ourselves. This complicates the task of achieving sizable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Forcing reduction of fossil fuel use without providing adequate, affordable alternatives would punish economies globally, and this punishment would be felt most severely among “the least of these.” Faithful action must not only address potential climate change, but also facilitate a just, stable and improving quality of life for those most vulnerable.

In this Consultation document, we say very little about the underlying science. The science is important, but, given the abundance of information elsewhere about the science, we believe our role is to focus on the discussion of solutions. From our perspective, the essential conclusion from the science is that there is a problem that calls for a faithful solution. We believe we are called to action.

The purpose of this Consultation document is to advance the discussion within PC(USA) of the alternatives available. We begin, as we ought, with a discussion of the theological foundations that should guide our decisions: How do we know that a response is a faithful response? Working from that theological framework, we describe alternatives that we are aware of, and we discuss an assessment of each alternative according to the criteria from our theological framework. Finally, we discuss a path forward for action at the 222nd General Assembly (2016).We who have prepared this report wish to emphasize our personal commitment to remaining engaged in this discussion both within the church and in society more poadly. We believe that it is vitally important for people of good faith to remain “at the table” for debate about complex issues, even if – perhaps especially if – those discussions become contentious. In addition to this Consultation document, we will be convening one or more symposia to discuss these issues. These symposia will provide us an opportunity to explain our thoughts and concerns more fully than we can in this document, and will provide all who are concerned with these issues an opportunity for discussion outside the parliamentary framework of yes/no votes. It is our hope that this Consultation document and those symposia will contribute to a richer, more informed discussion at General Assembly; to a wiser, more faithful decision by our denomination; and to prompt realization of real changes in human behavior adequate to address the problem.