The climate-change campaign needs a sense of can-do enthusiasm, says Giles Fraser. It would be really something if faith leaders were able to help replace gloomy defeatism with a broader version of something Christians call hope.

Leaders of nine major faiths have presented 60 ideas for lessening carbon emissions to the United Nations after the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, singled out the religious community as key in fighting climate change.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster have joined faith-based groups across the UK in calling for “urgent measures” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the run-up to Copenhagen.

UK anti-poverty agency Christian Aid says it is alarmed that the European finance ministers’ meeting to discuss climate finance in Luxembourg has broken up without agreement.