Faith Leaders: G20 must deal with "greed" of financial system (Stephen Brown)

The world's biggest grouping of churches has urged a "drastic transformation" of financial institutions, claimed that greed has become the basis for economic growth, and said that G20 leaders must build a new system based on ethical principles.

"What we need are brave and new measures to correct this unjust and unethical system in order to prevent such a crisis from occurring once again," said the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, ahead of a 2 April summit in London of leaders from the Group of 20 leading economies.

"The need of the hour is to construct a system in which market forces are checked [not only] through ethical regulations and oversight but also by a framework of common values that sets clear limits to excessive and irresponsible actions based on greed," Kobia said in a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made public on 30 March.

Kobia urged G20 leaders, "to go beyond short-term financial bail out actions and to seek long-term transformation based on sound ethical and moral principles".

The WCC gathers 349 churches - principally Anglican, Protestant and Orthodox - from 110 countries.

In his letter to Brown, Kobia highlighted 12 proposals for the G20 leaders. These included mechanisms to deter currency speculation and to control capital flows; the eradication of financial speculation on commodities such as food and energy; the dismantling of tax havens; a system of global taxes to finance public needs; and debt cancellation.

Kobia said he welcomed moves by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a global charter for sustainable economic activity.

Still, said Kobia, who is a Methodist from Kenya, such a charter should be formulated on a "participatory basis" that involved all U.N. countries.

"More importantly," the WCC secretary general added, "the churches believe that fighting global poverty, the food crisis and climate change should be given the same attention as salvaging the financial meltdown."

Separately, religious leaders in Britain have urged G20 leaders not to forget promises made to the world's poor, nor commitments to tackle climate change.

"Even in these difficult times, we strongly urge the leaders of the G20 to hold fast to the commitments they have made to the world's poorest people," said leaders drawn from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faiths in a joint statement. "Morally binding commitments to cut carbon emissions and so to slow the devastating effects of man-made climate change have been made in recent years. They should not be forgotten or postponed."

Signatories included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion; Mohammed Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain; Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor; and Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks.

They stated, "Some aspects of this crisis will require technical economic solutions. However, those solutions alone will not be enough to address all the questions that we face. At the roots of this crisis lie important moral issues."

:: WCC proposals for the G20 meeting and United Nations general assembly in May 2009:

1. That this crisis is an opportunity for the international community to create a new financial architecture to be developed under the aegis of the United Nations where broad participation of all countries and the civil society could take place. The G20 discussion should therefore prepare the way for a fuller discussion at the May U.N General Assembly debate on the issue.

2. Set a process for democratisation of all global finance and trade institutions.

3. Deter destabilising currency speculation by transforming and strengthening regulatory institutions.

4. Develop a practice of ethics and social justice that can guide financial markets in the world.

5. Establish international, permanent and binding mechanisms of control over capital flows and capital flight.

6. Implement an international monetary system based on a new system of reserves, including the creation of regional reserve currencies in order to end the current supremacy of the U.S. dollar, and to ensure international financial stability.

7. Prohibit hedge funds and over-the-counter markets, where derivatives and other toxic products are exchanged without public control.

8. Eradicate speculation on commodities, primarily on food and energy, by creating public mechanisms that will monitor speculative behaviour.

9. Dismantle tax havens, bring the users to justice (individuals, companies, banks and financial intermediaries), and create an international tax organization to combat tax competition and evasion.

10. Establish a new international system of wealth-sharing by creating a system of global taxes (on financial transactions, polluting activities and high income) to finance global public goods.

11. Cancel illegitimate debt and address unsustainable debts of impoverished countries, and establish a system of democratic, accountable, fair sovereign borrowing and lending that serves sustainable and equitable development.

12. Ensure that this crisis will not lead to the reduction of the Official Development Aid to poor countries, nor adversely affect the Millennium Development Goals.