Climate commandment?

Churches back ethical and responsible approach to emissions The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has been showing his inclination to stand up and be counted on climate change. Describing it as a threat to the viability of the human species, he has called for stronger government action, including taxes to make it more costly to emit greenhouse gases. He has also praised the concept of ‘contraction and convergence’, requiring progressive reductions in emissions to a globally sustainable level which allows everyone in the world an equal share. ‘Operation Noah’, a broad British and Irish church campaign, encourages people here to sign a covenant on reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to press for governmental and global action. Launched by the Churches Together coalition, its leading figures include Archbishop of York David Hope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, and senior Welsh and Northern Irish Methodists.

10 November 2004