Chartres Pledges Flight-Free Year

The Bishop of London has agreed to go one full year without flying to prove the point he made last year when he suggested that flying to go on holiday was sinful.

The Rt Rev Richard Chartres, one of the Church of England's leading spokesmen on environmental issues, said he would not fly to meetings nor, since he took family breaks in Devon, to go on holidays by plane, The Guardian reports.

Bishop Chartres told the newspaper: "This is not just ... climbing on the bandwagon. It has been a major theme of mine ... I have been trying to look critically at my carbon footprint. We all have to live responsibly. I can see myself spending a lot of time on drafty railway platforms."

God is Green, a Channel 4 documentary that will air next Monday, will show the film-maker Mark Dowd persuading Bishop Chartres to sign a pledge not to travel by air. In a move that is already causing his staff problems rearranging his travel schedule, Bishop Chartres chooses the "gold standard" of no flights at all.