Welby says 'God is green' and issues plea on climate

Archbishop asks leaders to act now before it is too late’

- DAVID MADDOX

The Archbishop of Canterbury has made a powerful intervention pressing for urgent action to address the climate crisis before it is "too late to save the world".

Writing exclusively for The Independent, Justin Welby stated that “God is green” and those who claim to be Christian but argue the climate crisis is “a hoax” are wrong. Britain’s chief cleric has defiantly told his detractors he “won’t be silenced” as he enters what he sees as the most crucial debate of the current age. He said: “If it is interfering to seek to avert the climate change catastrophe, let us interfere.”

His intervention comes as The Independent prepares to host the Climate 100 event in New York with keynote speaker, former prime minister Theresa May, and publishes its inaugural Climate 100 List celebrating the world’s foremost environmentalists.

Lady May herself has come in for criticism from members of her own party for pushing the climate crisis agenda, particularly by forcing through the clean air legislation which became the basis of London’s expanded ultra-low emission zone (Ulez).