Masorti and Reform rabbis back Climate Bill
Rabbis Jonathan Wittenberg and Debbie Young-Somers sign faith leaders' letter handed to Downing Street
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, senior rabbi of Masorti Judaism, has added his name to those of a group of faith leaders calling on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to back next week’s landmark climate bill.
The Climate and Nature Bill is due to go to the vote on Friday January 24. More than two dozen national religious leaders have now asked Sir Keir to back the Bill, saying that by doing so he will “take responsibility for the international impacts of all our actions.”
A letter expressing the views of the religious leaders was handed in to Downing Street by a small delegation on Monday. The private members’ bill is supported by 250 Parliamentarians and ministers are under increasing pressure to give MPs a free vote. The proposed law sets out sweeping changes to nature protections in the UK and is set to be debated as news of the horrific Los Angeles fires continues to make headlines all over the world.
Rabbi Wittenberg and Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers, from the rabbinic team at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue, have joined senior rabbis, bishops and imams to call on the Prime Minister to support the landmark bill ahead of a Commons debate.
The letter says “it is difficult to overstate the urgency of this legislation”, while referencing the “scenes of chaos and misery” experienced during recent national disasters across the globe.
More than 200 MPs have already thrown their weight behind the backbench private members’ bill which could be voted through the Commons next Friday. The Bill is co-sponsored by two Labour MPs, Alex Sobel, who is Jewish, and his colleague Olivia Blake.
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