Evangelical Climate Initiative

The Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) is an initiative by some American evangelical leaders and organizations to mitigate global warming. ECI's first statement, calling for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, was initially signed by 86 evangelical leaders. Signatories included Rick Warren, the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, and the leader of the Salvation Army. The number of signatories had risen to over 100 by December 2007, and as of July 2011 over 220 evangelical leaders had signed the call to action. David P. Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University, helped draft the document.

When the Evangelical Climate Initiative began in February 2006, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) was not ready make such a commitment. Not quite a year later, the NAE worked with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School to bring scientists and evangelical Christian leaders together to mitigate climate change. As ABC News reported:

Notably, the dialog has the endorsement of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 45,000 churches and 30 million churchgoers in the United States. Just one year ago, the group refused to endorse the "Evangelical Climate Initiative" signed by 86 religious leaders that called global warming a real and urgent moral problem. At the time, NAE officials said it was because there was disagreement among their members about the importance of global warming. Now, those same officials say things are changing.