Part of the mission for the United Methodist Women organization includes promoting economic and environmental stewardship and sustainability. Their national office has made climate justice one of its four social justice priorities. More specifically, they focus on how climate change impacts people in different ways, depending upon the geographic region where they reside.
The Women’s Carbon Fund is dedicated to carbon issues, focusing on aid to women and children, who make up 70% of the world’s poor according to unitedmethodistwomen.org. They aim to account for gender roles and to incorporate women’s voices because they believe policy makers fail to do so. This organization supports women-led projects that lower CO2 emissions, communities whose lives have been affected by climate change, and climate and energy advocacy initiatives led by women for women.
Their focus on environmental justice stems from their theological belief from the United Methodist Book of Discipline, “All creation is the Lord’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. God has granted us stewardship of creation. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect (Social Principles, 160).”