The Methodist Church’s partner charity All We Can is launching a campaign looking at the devastating impact of climate change across the world. In a series of reflections, different people will tell of how the change in weather is causing horrific impacts for some of the Earth’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
The Methodist Church’s Net Zero Engagement Officer, Jack Slater-Wells, writes amid record-breaking heat waves, droughts and wildfires affecting much of the UK.
Great Britain is, famously, a rainy island. But the prevailing weather conditions in recent months have forced many of us to reconsider whether this will remain the case in a warming world. Like much of Europe, the summer of 2026 has been marked by exceptional heat, unprecedentedly low rainfall and wildfires. While warm and dry conditions are not new, the science is clear that climate change has made this summer hotter and dryer that it would otherwise be.
The numbers paint a dramatic picture of the situation. The average temperature in June was almost 3 celsius above average for England. In July, Wales received just 8 per cent of its average rainfall. In England and Wales horrific wildfires have raged destroying homes and leading to an emergency alert from the Government. And in Scotland, a wildfire in the Cairngorms burned for almost two weeks and destroyed 25 square kilometres of forest and moorland. Perhaps most significantly, it is estimated that the heatwaves of June and July have resulted in almost 3,000 deaths.
We once talked about the climate crisis in the future tense, as a scary and unknown future on our horizon. It is now undeniable that the climate crisis is here.
In the Methodist Church we are committed to reducing our contribution to this crisis by taking all reasonable steps to become a net-zero Church. Methodist churches have installed solar panels, switched to heat-pumps, improved the insulation of their buildings, and taken many other steps to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their buildings. Some churches have changed who they bank with, others have made greater use of online meetings. Worship schema and liturgies have been developed that put care for creation front and centre. Millions of pounds have been mobilised for climate action, and a growing number of districts employ staff whose sole focus is emissions reduction.
Of course, the Methodist Church is fundamentally nothing more or less than the sum of the people who make it up. And in countless different ways, we have all been working to reduce our emissions in our own lives: taking public transport, eating less meat, flying less, recycling our waste.
We can see the outline of what a net-zero Methodist Church will look like. It is not here yet, but there is a trace of what the future will be that we can discern in the present.
And yet, we know we must move faster to make that hoped-for future a reality. As serious as the situation is here in Britain, the urgency of the climate crisis in other parts of the world is even greater. This injustice is compounded when we consider that many of those most affected by the climate crisis have done the least to cause it.
The summer of 2026 should be a wake-up call for those of us in Britain. The climate crisis has arrived, and if we are serious when we say we are called to do justice then climate action must be central to everything we do.
For more information on All We Can or to donate please visit: All We Can | Christian Development and Emergency Relief Charity | UK