In response to Professor Ross Garnaut's report on how Australia can take up the fight against climate change, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific is reminding church members of their obligation to care for the environment and the simple steps they can take to achieve it.

Delivering his 652-page study on the cost of climate change to the Governments of the eight States and Territories of Australia, Professor Garnaut said the effort required by Australians to get a global climate agreement that could save the Great Barrier Reef, the food bowl of the Murray-Darling Basin and the wetlands of Kakadu would be far less than the sacrifices of earlier generations.

"This problem is very small compared to the resources we mobilized for the Second World War," Professor Garnaut said. At most, the nation would need to invest 2 per cent of its gross domestic product per year in 2020 to meet the report's most ambitious target.

Even so, Australia will need to undergo huge change by mid-century if it wants to cut its emissions deeply enough to help achieve a global agreement that will avoid dangerous climate change and keep greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere from rising above 450 parts per million. And the success of this will depend on achieving a convincing global agreement at next year's UN climate talks.

“As Christians, we believe that God has made us stewards over his creation and it is our responsibility to care for the environment in a faithful way,” says Dr Barry Oliver, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific. “The preservation and nurture of the environment relates intimately with the way we serve God.”

Dr Oliver says that church members do not have to go to much expense or make drastic changes in their lifestyles in order to help protect the environment. “Simple things like recycling, turning the light switches off when we’re not in the room, ensuring that we wash our laundry with a full load, avoiding using our cars as much as possible and taking shorter showers can all make a difference,” he says.

Two years ago, Adventists joined other churches in a consultation on climate change at the London headquarters of the Christian Aid charity.

“Adventists have consistently advocated a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Studies have shown that greenhouse emissions generated from a vegetarian diet are up to six times less than those from other dietary choices,” Dr Oliver. “But we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the backs. We can and should do more.”

The Garnaut Climate Change Review final report is available for viewing in Portable Document Format (.pdf) in the Internet at: http://www.garnautreview.org.au/CA25734E0016A131/pages/garnaut-climate-change-review-final-report