A Poplar Bluff pastor and business owner will attend the United Nations COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, through the Christian Climate Observers Program. Parker Williams, who is currently parish administrator for Holy Cross Episcopal Church, is scheduled to attend the international conference being held Oct. 31-Nov. 12.
“My presence at COP26 is important for me not only because I will be learning and gaining first-hand experience with the global conversations surrounding climate change, but also because it is an intersection of where care for the environment connects with God’s mission among the nations,” Williams said in information shared shortly before he left for the conference. “This task is a heavy one, especially considering all the negative and politicized reactions here locally.”
World leaders with delegations representing every country around the globe, leading scientists, non-profits, famous activists, and many more will be participating in Glasgow for this two-week conference that focuses on every aspect of climate change and environmental issues, according to a press release from Williams.
For nearly 30 years, the UN has brought together nearly every country on earth for their global climate summits.
In that time, climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority, Williams said.
This year’s COP is especially critical, he believes.
Under the Paris Agreement, which was agreed upon in 2015, the world was united as countries committed to bringing forward national plans setting up how they would reduce their emissions and by how much – known as Nationally Determined Commitments, or ‘NDC’s’. This year’s meeting is the first time since the Paris Agreement where each country will present and update their NDC’s, he said.
Williams also spoke in attending this conference of the importance of “redeeming the entirety of creation, and of calling all peoples to abundant life in the Kingdom of God by listening to them and their concerns for their own communities.”
Williams plans to post regular updates about his experience to his blog, www.cparkerwilliams.com.
He recently took time to discuss both how he became interested in climate change science and what this opportunity means to him.
Williams is a Poplar Bluff native who talks about growing up in the area in a family that has been in agriculture on both sides as far back as they trace.
“I was raised working on a farm,” he said. “I went off to college in Joplin and then came back and spent the next 10 years working with my uncles, my grandfather and the rest of our family there on a rice and soybean operation.”
Through family businesses, he has been involved in a precision irrigation business, a limestone rock quarry, and other agriculture-related efforts.
“It started with my work in the family business and agriculture, my love for outdoors and hunting and hiking and rock climbing and really being passionate about those kinds of that kind of engagement with the world around us with our natural resources,” he said.
He got involved in a number of conservation projects, including habitat restoration and sustainable agriculture.
“Being a part of that world for so long, my interest in conservation and habitat and stewardship is really localized in that way,” said Williams. “For me, the conversation and climate change is entirely consistent with who I was raised to be.”
In attending COP, he wants to hear from the rest of the world what they’re doing and what they’re saying.
The Christian Climate Observers Program is a non-denominational Christian presence. Members of the group are observers and can attend meetings, briefings and workshops.
“Only governments are parties to the Paris Agreement, but the UNFCCC recognizes that many others have a lot at stake as well,” the group reports on its website. “They call us ‘Non-Party Stakeholders.’
“‘Observer’ is an official term with a long history at the United Nations. Non-profit organizations, like our Christian ones, are given ‘Observer Status,’ and are thus allowed to participate on a limited basis in the work of the UNFCCC.”
Members hope to bring the influence of Christ to climate action, while also mobilizing faith-based communities, according to the group.
“Their purpose is to train, including with the Christian perspective, a new generation of observers for the Paris process so that the church may make the most effective contribution possible to all subsequent COPS,” Williams said.
He sees his presence at this conference as an intersection of where care for the environment connects with God’s mission among the nations, of calling all peoples to the abundant life in the kingdom of God and by listening to them and their concerns for their community by caring for their temporal needs.
Williams has an interest in the history of climate science and talks on his blog of Eunice Foote, a scientist who in 1856 experimented with the effects of different levels of carbon dioxide and how the air warmed when exposed to sunlight. A hundred years later, scientists involved in the oil industry were talking about how burning conventional fuel created carbon dioxide, Williams shared.
By the mid to late 1980s, it had become a topic the world was talking about, and in 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was launched. It would become COP, the Conference of the Parties.
In 1992, President George W. Bush was one of the chief people championing what was going on there, Williams said.
Williams shared, “He said this, ‘On one fundamental point, the United States fully intends to be the world’s preeminent leader in protecting the world’s global environment. We believe that environment and development, the two subjects of this conference, go hand in hand. A growing economy creates the resources necessary for environmental protection and environmental protection makes growth sustainable.’”
This isn’t a partisan issue, Williams believes.
“I didn’t come into climate change because of the politics around it or because a politician was passionate about it or one party happens to talk a lot about it,” he said. “I came into it from my background in the environmental work in agriculture, and hunting, and then through my faith and seeing how God has called us to care for this creation for the first great commission.”
People often misunderstand the Paris Climate Accord, according to Williams. The 27-page agreement was not legislation forced on the United States by a foreign body and did not set penalties, he said.
Instead, it was meant to foster competition among nations to do better.
“They didn’t dictate that to anybody, but each country brings their own to the table,” he said. “And so the Paris agreement was really just the first step on setting kind of those base ground rules about how we’re going to do that.”
Williams hopes by being a witness to this conference, he will gain a better understanding of what is going on at a global level and what that means for the local region.
Williams is also an aspirant for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, a chaplain at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center and a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri’s Creation Care Team.