Church of England Welcomes Climate Change Bill

The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, the Rt Revd George Cassidy, has welcomed the Climate Change Bill during a debate in the House of Lords.

Bishop Cassidy said he hoped the Bill would deliver the reductions that Britain has to make on its carbon emissions.

He also welcomed Environment Secretary David Miliband's stress on the need for international agreements to tackle what is increasingly being referred to as 'global heating' - as opposed to global warming - during the Nairobi conference. Bishop Cassidy also welcomed Miliband's emphasis on the need to ensure that those most affected by climate change have the help they need to adapt.

"The urgent response to the global crisis starts and finishes with international agreements," he said.

"The whole human family must address this together: the stronger helping the weaker, those most responsible for the crisis accepting culpability and addressing their attitudes and behaviour for all our sakes."

Bishop Cassidy said that the framework for a post-Kyoto Protocol world had to be based on the right to pollute being shared equally on a per capita basis across the world's population.

"It is just, and it demands that we think of ourselves as one human family not just as a collection of self-interested nations," he said as he urged Britain to show international leadership in the "environmental crisis".

The Church of England launched "Shrinking the Footprint" earlier in the year to ensure that church buildings and members do as much as they can to reduce their own carbon dioxide emissions over the next three years.

"Environmental concern unites us all as a human family across the globe. The United Kingdom has a part to play, and we must not fail," he said.

"The time is right, and civil society is ready. The government must show strong leadership, and they may be astonished at the electorate's willingness to fall in and accept the measures that are needed to address this crucial issue of our time."