Church of Scotland joins Stop Climate Chaos

As the world's governments continue talks in Bali, Indonesia, on the threat posed by climate change, the Church of Scotland announced that it has signed up to the "Stop Climate Chaos" campaign.

A number of faith groups have already signed up to Stop Climate Chaos, including A Rocha, BMS World Mission, CAFOD, Operation Noah and Tearfund. The broad coalition also includes leading environmental agencies and international development agencies, all lobbying the UK Government to increase their commitment to the issue of climate change.

The Kirk's Church & Society Council said it shares the Stop Climate Chaos vision to generate positive public pressure on the UK Government to take the necessary steps at home and abroad to ensure that global warming does exceed 2 degrees centigrade.

Commenting earlier today, Morag Mylne, convener of the Church & Society Council, said: "The Church of Scotland is concerned that climate change poses a serious and immediate threat to people everywhere, particularly to the poor of the earth. Climate change represents a failure in our stewardship of God's creation.

"We accept the need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases urgently to avoid dangerous and irreversible climate change, and to promote a more equitable and sustainable use of energy."

The Church & Society Council's decision to join Stop Climate Chaos follows the release of its paper "Energy for a Changing Climate", which was introduced and accepted at the General Assembly in May.

In the paper, the Church of Scotland called on all individual Church members to make the lifestyle changes necessary to reduce their energy use and consumption of the Earth's resources.

Mike Robinson, chairman of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, welcomed the Kirk to the coalition.

"The support of the Kirk means that we now have more than 1.5million members in Scotland, and the breadth of that support demonstrates clearly that climate change is something that must be tackled by each and everyone one of us. The time for action is now," he said.

Around 190 countries are in Bali for the major UN climate change conference to launch two years of talks to agree a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.

A UN-backed study released on Tuesday said that developing nations including Sudan and Uruguay were already taking steps to "climate proof" their economies from the problematic consequences of climate change on their countries, ranging from desertification to storms.