OVER the last few weeks catholics in Redditch, including the outlying churches at Alvechurch, Feckenham and Hadzor, have been signing a petition to the Prime Minister calling on him to take decisive action at the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Paris.

In a letter addressed to all humanity issued last May, Pope Francis addressed the issue of climate change and called for an “ecological conversion” to combat the issue.

“It is this letter which has inspired this petition” said Jim Quinn of the parish CAFOD group.

“Climate change is already affecting us all, think of last winter’s floods in Somerset, but it is affecting communities in the poorest parts of the world the most.

"For these reasons it is vital that firm and binding action is agreed at the Paris conference to prevent global warming exceeding 1.50C."

At the time of writing more than 280 parishioners had signed the petition to David Cameron.

These will be added to the 27,000 signatures already collected nationally and will be handed to the Prime Minister later this month before he goes to the conference.