Dozens of leaders from the major faiths present in the United Kingdom urged government leaders to take urgent action to address climate change and promised their congregations would do likewise.
The so-called Glasgow Multifaith Declaration was signed and released September 20th, looking ahead to the U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, which will be in Glasgow, Scotland, in early November.
Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian leaders as well as Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists and members of other Protestant communities signed the declaration. The Catholic leaders included Scottish Bishop Brian McGee of Argyll and the Isles, president of the Catholic bishops’ committee for interreligious dialogue, and Notre Dame Sister Isabel Smyth, secretary of the committee, and Bishop John Arnold of Salford, lead bishop for the environment for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
“Our faith communities are united in caring for human life and the natural world,” the leaders said. “We share a belief in a hopeful future, as well as an obligation to be responsible in caring for our common home, the Earth. We recognize the opportunities that COP26 brings in addressing the urgent need for action in limiting the effects of climate change and the critical importance of decisions made in this conference to take forward the agreement made in Paris in 2015,” it said.