BELL ringers in Petersfield, some of them fairly new to ringing, rang for 30 minutes to mark the COP 26 UN Global Climate Conference in Glasgow.

The bell ringers in St Peter’s church bell tower rang their changes along with hundreds of other church bells as a call for urgent action at the UN’s COP26 climate change summit.

The week-long summit brought together 196 world leaders and 20,000 delegates to commit to a reduction in carbon emissions to avoid a climate emergency.

Environmentalist Edward Gildea, from Saffron Walden in Essex, came up with the idea to use church bells to sound a warning to delegates in Glasgow.

He said: “It’s an historic function of church bells to send a warning. They were the loudest noise that might reach a few miles to warn of floods, fire or a shipwreck.

“With Ring Out For Climate Change, bellringers were able to express themselves, so it’s giving people a voice as well as giving the church a voice.

“It is time for the church to speak out on climate change, it has this voice, why not use it?

“We are saying ‘we care for God’s creation, we are concerned about it’.

“We are very passionate about the future we seem to be storing up for ourselves and need to change.”

St Paul’s Cathedral and York Minster are among the churches taking part.