Green Times

The Queen has celebrated Commonwealth Day at a ceremony in Westminster Abbey focussed on co-operation to protect the environment.

More than 2,000 people gathered for the multi-faith service in central London, coming together to read six affirmations.

Among them were pledges to respect the planet and to recognise the threat to humanity posed by climate change and environmental degradation.

The colourful service included performances by the African Children’s Choir, which has been working with the most vulnerable children in east Africa for 24 years, and Ngati Ranana, who performed a haka inside the Abbey before the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

A number of personal testimonies were read including one by a survivor of the 2004 tsunami.

To mark the occasion the Royal Horticultural Society left four packets of garden seeds on the chairs of every guest at the service.

In her Commonwealth Day message, the Queen, as head of the Commonwealth, said that the impact of climate change was often worst for those countries who pollute the least.

And she suggested that the developed world should work with communities that are most affected to bring about lasting change.

“Happily, this approach has always been the strength of the Commonwealth, and awareness of environmental issues is now widespread, with a determination that future generations should enjoy clean air, sufficient fresh water and energy without risking damage to the planet.”

In her message for 2008, the Queen referred to last year’s meeting of Commonwealth heads of government on the edge of Lake Victoria in Uganda where they agreed to an action plan for tackling climate change.

Source: Press Association