Weekly Action - 16 January 2023 - Davos
Davos
This week world leaders are gathering in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. More than 2,700 leaders from politics, business and civil society, from over 130 countries, will be attending, including 52 heads of state. The focus of their discussions will be ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’. World leaders have gathered in Davos every January since 1971, under the auspices of the World Economic Forum, to discuss the major challenges facing the world and the global economy.
Economic challenges
And there certainly are many economic and social challenges facing the world in 2023. Global climate change, pollution and overconsumption are having a huge impact around the world, being felt first and hardest by the poorest countries and communities, who have done the least to cause them. In the past 6 months, we have seen a massive and tragic food crisis in East Africa, devastating floods in Pakistan, and record temperatures in the UK and Europe, all as a result of climate change. Runaway global inflation, driven by the rising cost of fossil fuels (partly as a result of the war in Ukraine), has led to a cost of living crisis, undermining economies around the world. Fuel and energy prices, and the prices of food, goods and services, have all rocketed. In the public sector, many years of funding cuts in multiple countries mean public services like healthcare and education are struggling in the face of huge and growing demand, triggering widespread strikes.
4 Shifts economics
In the face of such troubling times, what do we as Christians have to offer? Well, if we turn back to the teaching of the Bible, and examine the lessons from history, we find there is much we can learn to help the world build a global economy in the twenty-first century that is green and fair, and fit for the future. Arise’s 4 Shifts Report attempts to capture these key lessons. It finds that 4 essential shifts are needed. 1) Nations need to develop strong and fair national economies to create jobs and wealth. 2) They can then tax these to provide social spending and basic services like healthcare and education, to ensure all benefit, not just the richest in society. 3) Going forward these economies need to be powered by 100% clean renewable energy to avoid global climate change. 4) They also need to be circular economies that reuse precious natural resources rather than overconsume and dump them. Through 4 Shifts economics the challenges that world leaders meeting in Davos are wrestling with can be answered, based on Biblical principles. Our global economy can be rewired to be green and fair, so it still creates the jobs and wealth that lift people out of poverty, but does so without relying on fossil fuels and overconsumption which is wrecking our planet.
Will you take action as part of Arise’s 4 Shifts campaign this week, and tell governments that the answers they are searching for in Davos, can be found in approaches like 4 Shifts economics?
Take Action
Speak out in advocacy
Message your MP via social media. Share the link to the 4 Shifts Report with them. Ask them to support 4 Shifts economic policies in their voting in parliament, and to urge the government to do so in its international negotiations. Find your MP and their social media contact details here.
Pray
Pray for the governments of the world as they meet in Davos. Pray that they will adopt approaches like 4 Shifts economics as they respond to the economic and social challenges of our times, both in their policies at home and in international agreements.
Give
Give to Christian organisations like CAP or the Trussel Trust who are supporting those living in poverty in the UK who are being failed by our current broken economic system, and to organisations like Christian Aid, Cafod, Tearfund or World Vision who are doing the same for the poorest communities in countries all around the world.
Practical Action
Grow the movement of Christians calling for change by sending this action on to a friend and encouraging them to sign up to receive weekly actions from Arise directly.
Ethical Consumption
Buy products and services from companies that are already modelling 4 Shifts principles of care for the environment, supporting the poorest and reducing inequality, like those with the Fairtrade or Living Wage marks.
Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
Find out more
It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area. If you are already in an Arise group, take this action to your wider church, and get them all to do it too.
Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a green and fair global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report, and how this forms part of God’s bigger vision for our world in the Arise Manifesto.
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