The Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) was a United Kingdom-based international organisation founded by

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

, in 1995. ARC was a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

body whose aim was to assist the major religions of the world to develop environmental programmes based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices. In 2007 it joined with the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

(UNDP) to develop a significant and innovative programme to work with the world’s major

faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people ofte ...

s to address issues of

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and the

natural environment The natural environment or natural world encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally, meaning in this case not artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. This environment encompasses ...

through the development of faith-based “Long Term Commitments for a Living Planet” – pledges of faith action on the environment aimed at achieving generational change. Many of the religions working with ARC presented their Long-Term Commitments at the ARC-UNDP conference in

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

in November 2009, at which

Secretary-General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

Ban Ki-Moon and Prince Philip were present. More than 30 commitments were made in total. At the time UNDP Assistant Secretary-General Olav Kjørven described this coming together of religion and conservation as: “potentially the biggest civil society movement on climate change in history” and “the biggest mobilisation of people and communities that we have ever seen on this issue”. In September 2012, as a result of support and co-ordination by ARC, 27 faith groups from sub-Saharan Africa presented their Long-Term Commitments for a Living Planet at an ARC-organised meeting in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper h ...

, Kenya. Martin Palmer was the Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation. ARC announced its closure in June 2019.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alliance Of Religions And Conservation International organisations based in the United Kingdom International environmental organizations Environmentalism and religion Organizations established in 1995 1995 establishments in England Organisations based in Bath, Somerset

See also

References

External links