The Lead Bishop for the Environment of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, John Arnold, has urged the leaders gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh for the COP27 Climate Summit to save the planet. “The planet is in danger”, Bishop Arnold said in a statement on the Bishops’ Conference website, also recalling what Pope Francis said in his encyclical “Laudato Si’” about environmental protection. “Recent scientific reports show we are still off track to keeping us all safe and we know it is the poorest communities in our world who are suffering most from a crisis they did not cause. No more so than our brothers and sisters in East Africa, who are experiencing the worst drought for 40 years”.

Urgent action is needed at an international level to “limit global temperatures”, Bishop Arnold went on to write in his statement. “We need concrete action to keep us within a 1.5-degree temperature rise. We need to focus on investing in renewable energy and move away from fossil fuels. At COP27, we need action to shift to a food system which does not harm our planet and has feeding all people nutritious food at its heart. It is our Christian duty to protect our planet” and “I will be praying for our world leaders in the hope that they can develop solutions to the defining challenge of our generation”.