Windsor: major interfaith conference on environment

Windsor Castle

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, as founder of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) is hosting a major conference on the environment next week at Windsor Castle. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon will be making a keynote address. Bishop John Arnold will be a Catholic Church representative at the event which will also include around 200 representatives from the Bahai, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Muslim, Judaism and Sikh faiths.

Mr Ban Ki-moon will tell the conference on Tuesday that the initiatives being unveiled at Windsor “could motivate the largest civil society movement the world has ever seen” on climate change.
 
The event is being organised by ARC with the UN Development Programme.

In a statement, the Alliance explained why faiths have become involved in environmental issues:

- Most people around the world adhere to a religion – the faiths reach out to 85 per cent of the world’s population;

- Own seven to eight per cent of the habitable land surface of the planet;

- Have vast media networks; are involved in more than half of all schools worldwide; control more than seven per cent of international financial investments;

- and are often trusted where government and military leaders are not.