The Muslim Council of Britain was a signatory to a Faith and Climate Change Statement released on 29th October 2009.

The Statement was signed at the Faith and Climate Change Seminar hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and attended by the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband MP.

The seminar brought together Faith leaders and organisations from across the UK to discuss and co-ordinate the response of faith communities to the looming crisis posed by Climate Change and global warming.





The statement has been welcomed by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The Secretary of State, Ed Miliband said: "Tackling climate change is a cause that unites people of all faiths. Each generation holds the planet in trust for the next and to fulfil our obligations to these future generations, we must succeed in getting a fair and ambitious agreement. We need the voice of all the world's religions in the coming weeks as we approach the Copenhagen summit."

Mujibul Islam, Chair of MCB's Youth Committee, said: "It is our duty, amanah or trust, to look after our planet. We all need to play our part. Faith leaders are taking this very seriously and It's now time for our politicians to show real leadership and secure an agreement at the Copenhagen Summit next month."

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Full Text of the Statement:

Statement by Faith Leaders and participants in the Faith and Climate Change Seminar hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, 29 October 2009

As leaders and representatives of faith communities and faith-based organisations in the UK we wish to highlight the very real threat to the world's poor, and to our fragile creation, from the threat of catastrophic climate change. The developed world is primarily responsible for the already visible effects of global heating. Justice requires that we now take responsibility for slowing the rise in global temperature. We call upon UK negotiators at Copenhagen, and the other nations of the G20 in particular, to fight for a deal which speedily ends unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels and puts in place urgent measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that global temperature rise may be kept within two degrees centigrade.

We recognise unequivocally that there is a moral imperative to tackle the causes of global warming. This is reinforced by the reality that it is the poor and vulnerable who are most profoundly affected by the environmental impact of climate change - especially drought, floods, water shortages and rise in sea levels. Faith communities have a crucial role to play in pressing for changes in behaviour at every level of society and in every economic sector. We all have a responsibility to learn how to live and develop sustainably in a world of finite resources.

This responsibility comes into sharp focus today with less than 40 days before representatives of governments from across the world meet to agree a deal on climate change.

Building on the examples of local and international action to live and to work together sustainably which have been highlighted in our meeting today we pledge to: