Religious leaders bring faith to bear on saving earth at climate change forum today

Spiritual and religious leaders will gather for an interfaith forum today to examine what climate change means to the faith community and kick off Asia's chapter of an online "prayer petition".

The petition was created in May on Our Voices, a global internet-based "prayer platform", to urge world leaders to consider the "moral dimensions" of climate change and arrive at a "meaningful climate agreement" when they met for UN climate talks in Paris next year.

"Climate change is not just about politics and science. It concerns humanity," said Ciara Shannon, Asia coordinator for Our Voices, which will be launched in Asia today via Hong Kong.

The interfaith forum will feature representatives from the Bahai, Brahma Kumaris, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and Sikh communities.

It comes after Brazil, complaining it had not been consulted, refused at a New York climate conference in September to join more than 30 other countries in signing a pact committing to end deforestation by 2030.

The Paris summit, lined up for late next year, is to yield a legally binding treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions after 2020.

Though climate science and religion have never been closely connected, things are changing as religious leaders around the world, including in Hong Kong, try to put morality and ethics at the heart of what has largely been a political debate.