|TOP|The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned of the ‘huge moral problem’ of climate change as well as the urgent need for the government and individuals to take moral responsibility.

In an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, broadcast Tuesday Mar. 28, Dr Rowan Williams described climate change as an “enormous problem”.

“It's a huge practical problem, it's a huge moral problem,” he said, before quoting the calculations of the International Energy Agency which predicted a 60 per cent rise in carbon emissions over the next quarter of a century with the expansion of the Indian and Chinese economies.

“Unless we are able to effect serious concrete reductions immediately, the problem really is vast,” said Dr Williams.

He went on to warn that if sea levels rise according to predictions over the next couple of decades then any possible agricultural development in areas like the Indian sub-continent will be “completely undermined by that”.|QUOTE|

“So yes, there is moral question here, it's a question if you define morality as something which looks beyond just the interests of yourself and your immediate neighbours, then it is, I think, a profoundly immoral policy and lifestyle that doesn't consider those people who don't happen to share the present moment with us,” he said.

Dr Williams also warned that the moral responsibility to deal with climate change “lies with absolutely everybody, not only in terms of examining our own lifestyle and asking what concretely can be done, but also in sending a message to governments that this is recognised as a priority by the public”.

He said that educating people about this priority was in itself a ‘real priority’, adding that “the urgency has to be conveyed to people”.

“It’s not a marginal question, it's about everybody's justice, everybody's life in the future,” he said. “I think, as I say, we have to recognise the fact that it's not an optional extra, it's not a marginal question, and that we are in several areas now going on a very serious collision course.”

|AD|Dr Williams also backed predictions by a number of economists that the shortage in fuel supplies for ‘heavy car using economies’ is going to be a key contributor in destabilising the global political situation over the coming decades.

He agreed that there was a ‘leadership issue’ in regards to who is prepared to take responsibility at the executive level but also stressed the individual responsibility to take action against climate change.

“It's also a question fundamentally about each one of us and about the step changes we can each make and which each organisation can make too,” he said.

“And I say that because it's something, which I know that the Church of England is having to look at quite seriously in just those terms,” he added. “We can't talk about this in abstract as if we occupied a high moral ground; we have got to look at our practice too.”

Dr Williams warned that unless there was a real change in attitude towards the generally unpopular government regulations designed to reduce carbon emissions, like the strict enforcement of the 70mph speed limit, as well as towards international protocols, then billions of people could die.

The US remains stubborn in its refusal to make any cuts in carbon emissions, but the Archbishop of Canterbury welcomed as ‘significant’ a number of conservative Christian bodies that have begun lobbying on Capitol Hill over climate change.

“President Bush is, it seems, listening to the voices that are beginning to push in a different direction here,” he said. “I look forward with interest to developments on that because clearly there's been a real sea change in attitudes among some Christian quarters here.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury concluded by saying: “I think if we look at the language of the Bible on this, we very often come across a situation where people are judged for not responding to warnings.

“It's very deeply built in; there are choices we can make, each one of us, to change things now and I think what the Bible and the Christian tradition suggests is that those who have that challenge put before them, but not only the challenge, but the evidence for it, and don't respond, bear a very heavy responsibility before God.”