Christians believe the environment - nature, God's creation - was entrusted to human beings by God.
We think it's wrong to leave nature in a worse state than we found it; or to treat it as solely for our own use. Everyone should share its resources.
The Church of England’s national Environment Programme was inspired by the General Synod’s 2005 report ‘Sharing God’s Planet’. That motto will never get out of date.
Christians believe the natural environment was created then entrusted to human beings by God, who commanded us to ’till and keep it’ (Genesis 2:15). So we must care for it. Others lived here before we came along; we in turn must hand it on to posterity in good order.
Moreover, we say it’s wrong to treat nature as solely for our own use. We should share the earth:
There is a wide range of threats to the environment which we humans also depend on. This page is just a summary, setting out what we should do to help.
Every church in the Diocese is encouraged to sign up to Eco Church, the national Christian environmental awards scheme run by A Rocha UK.
Eco Church helps to build environmental concern and action into every aspect of the church’s life, worship, thinking and action.
So far, 184 churches in the Diocese have registered with Eco Church, and 88 of these have won awards. The Diocese is now an Eco Diocese Bronze award winner.
The climate is changing, due to global heating caused mainly by human activity.
Even in a time of pandemics, we think climate change remains the most serious environmental threat we face. Time is very short; climate change is fast slipping past the point of no return. We must not be distracted from dealing with it.
‘Carbon emissions’ are ‘greenhouse gases’ (or ‘GHGs’), which we humans put into the air. Most GHGs have carbon in them.
Carbon emissions add to the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming and climate change.
Each of us is responsible for a share of these gases, each church too. This share is expressed as our ‘carbon footprint’:
We should do everything to reduce our carbon emissions as far and fast as possible.
The Church of England and the Diocese of London aim to reduce our carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2030.
We must get to work on our churches. More than 90 of our churches have undertaken environmental audits, including for example all 24 churches in Islington.
Widespread habitat loss threatens the sustainability of wild species. Human over-population makes a big contribution to this problem.
We can all help conserve biodiversity by looking after the wildlife in our own churchyards.
We need to curb our nitrogen emissions too: eg from flying, as well as cars and other vehicles. This causes air pollution.
Since the Clean Air Acts in London, new toxic air pollutants, have come to the fore, especially nitrogen oxides and particulates. The struggle has to be kept up, e.g. through central London’s Ultra-Low Emissions Zone.
In 1962, Rachel Carson’s powerful book ‘Silent Spring’ drew attention to the dangers of uncontrolled pesticide use.
Ozone is a natural constituent of the atmosphere which protects the earth from harmful UV radiation.
The ozone layer has been depleted by CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) leaking from older fridges, air conditioning and aerosols. We should still make sure these are disposed of safely.
Sustainability means the capacity to keep things going, without mortgaging the future.
The Brundtland Commission of 1987 defined sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.
The Diocese aims to make all its own building developments sustainable and carbon neutral.
The first fully sustainable diocesan development was the Parsonage House completed in 2011 for St John’s Church in Wembley. Several more have been built since.
The main climate risks to our buildings are storms, high winds, heavy rain and flooding.
Severe floods are becoming many times more common across the UK.
Head of Environment and Sustainability.
Church of England Environment Programme
Eco Church
Energy and carbon, global warming and climate change
Climate Action Projects
Churchyards for London
Churchyards and wildlife
Trees in churchyards
Wildlife, ecology and biodiversity
Resource depletion and sustainability
Waste collection and recycling
Sustainable building.
A Rocha UK
Operation Noah
London Wildlife Trust
Natural England.
Environment and Sustainability, main page.
