Those in developing countries are the first to experience the devastating impacts of climate change - despite contributing to it the least. Climate campaigners warn that in its current form, the Climate Change Bill ignores the latest scientific evidence and key recommendations from the three parliamentary committees that reviewed the draft bill. The United Nations Development Programme also warned recently that the Bill needed improving as its targets were not ambitious enough.
Some 150,000 people die each year from the effects of climate change - and almost all live in developing countries.
Chris Bain, Director of CAFOD, said: "Tackling climate change is essential if the Government's good work in fighting poverty is not to be undermined by rising global temperatures which hit the world's poor hardest.
"We desperately need to see a strong Bill going through Parliament, which shows the UK is taking tough action on climate change, and gives the Government a mandate to speak out at crucial international talks."
Nearly 300 hundred members of religious orders with placards and banners called on Parliament to 'Kick the Carbon Habit' and 'Stop Climate Chaos'. The nuns and monks also met their MPs to discuss urgent changes needed in the Climate Change Bill.
Amongst those lobbying Parliament were Fr Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery near Crawley which was the focus of BBC TV series The Monastery, Mark Dowd, journalist and documentary maker, a former Dominican Friar and Campaign Strategist at Operation Noah, and Sister Pat Robb, member of the Congregation of Jesus, who worked in eight African countries mostly during civil wars in refugee camps and with internally displaced people.
