Labor calls for ?grassroots mobilisation? of religious Australians to tackle climate crisis

Anthony Albanese has called for the "grassroots mobilisation" of people of faith to tackle the climate crisis, appealing to a common "care for creation" across all religious groups.

Speaking to the Labor faith leaders' climate summit at the University of Western Sydney on Thursday, the ALP leader urged support for the party's "sensible" climate policy, arguing the need to "look after this precious Earth for our sake and the sake of our future generations".

"We need to make action on climate change happen," Albanese said. "And part of what today is about is getting that grassroots mobilisation from people of faith who understand the connection of the creation."

Highlighting Labor's climate policy announced last week, which set an emissions reduction target of 43% by 2030 and a renewables target in the electricity market of 82%, Albanese said the plan to look after the planet "happens to be good economics as well".

"It's an example of using government as a unifying force for good, and at its heart is the element contained within the teachings of so many faiths - that the environment cannot be separated from those who live in it, and that we have a responsibility to it," he said.

He pointed to tenets of environmentalism across the faiths, highlighting the "eco-friendly" prophet Muhammad for "recycling, planting trees and caring for the land", the Hindu tradition where humanity is not separate to nature, and a sense of "stewardship" in Judaism's creation stor.

Albanese also quoted Pope Francis's encyclical on ecology, Laudato Si, which warned of an "unprecedented destruction of ecosystems" and "serious consequences for all of us" if humanity failed to act on the climate emergency.