|PIC1|God takes an interest in the material things of the Earth like food and shelter, said the Archbishop of Canterbury this morning.

As 15,000 delegates meet in Copenhagen this week for the UN climate summit, Dr Rowan Williams dismissed the notion that religion had nothing to say about the issue.

He was speaking on Pause for Thought with Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2 this morning as he prepares to travel to the Dutch capital this weekend to speak to world leaders on the Church’s attitude to climate change.

He said: “We're getting ready for Christmas and it's worth remembering that one of the things we celebrate at Christmas is God taking an interest in the real material stuff of this Earth, the flesh and blood, and all the things that keep flesh and blood secure – food and shelter and so on. It would be pretty peculiar if we took the world less seriously than God does.”

The Archbishop said it was not good enough for people simply to say it was too difficult to address climate change but argued there were plenty of things people could do “to scale down our extravagant use of energy and the amount of waste we produce – that’s certainly a challenge at Christmas!”.

He said he would tell world leaders in Copenhagen that the change would only come “if we learn to love the world we’re in”.

“Christmas is a good time for rediscovering that. I hope everyone listening has a wonderful celebration – and a chance to rediscover something about love, for the world and for each other.”

At the climate summit today, Met Office scientists presented analyses of data from 1,500 weather stations showing that global temperatures have risen since 1850.

The Met Office warned that the last decade was the hottest on record, while 2009 is the fifth warmest year on record.

A hundred world leaders will join the summit at the weekend to continue negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the only legal binding climate agreement that is due to expire in 2012.

Campaigners are urging leaders to agree to 40 per cent cuts in carbon emissions and new funds to help developing countries meet the costs of mitigation.