The Vice President of Christian development agency Tearfund challenged the government on Saturday to back its strong statements on the need to tackle climate change with hard cash and policies.
Addressing an estimated 25,000 people at the 'I Count' climate change rally in Trafalgar Square, London, the Rt. Rev James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, said he had witnessed first hand the impact of climate change on poor communities in the developing world.
Bishop Jones said it was "fantastic" that government ministers had this week "lent their weight" to the Stern report on climate change, which warned that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20 per cent.
He added, however, "Sadly 'lending' is the word. The government give it one day then take it back the next.
Over the next 15 years the government will spend £45 billion on new school buildings. He challenged the government to build each of these to the "highest specification of sustainability and to the lowest possible emissions of carbon".
"This is the environment in which our young people should learn about the world. Let the Government put our money where their mouths are!"
Bishop James Jones continued: "Too much is at stake. How can we claim to be empowering Africa to a new future through aid, trade and debt relief, if through our own profligacy we wreck the climate and ruin their harvests?"
The 'I Count' event - the UK's largest ever climate change event - is part of an unprecedented and rapidly growing public campaign which counts among its many supporters the Women's Institute to the band Razorlight and hundreds of Tearfund supporters were among the crowds.
Ruth Weston, a 21-year-old student boarded a bus in Exeter with a group of friends at 6.30 am in order to reach Trafalgar Square for the start of the rally. "We've come as a public demonstration of what we care about the most," she said on the day.
