The Bishop of Woolwich has joined a number of high-ranking bishops across the UK in a call end an "increasingly precarious and unjust economic system" which is causing "environmental racism."

The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined the bishops in warning that black lives are more at risk from natural disasters caused by climate change and stating the word's delayed global response to clime injustice gives the impression '#blacklivesdontmatter.'

Church of England leaders are among dozens of bishops and archbishops worldwide who have signed the open letter. Bishops from Woolwich, Salisbury, Oxford, Truro, Dover, Sherborne, Loughborough, Kingston, Reading and Ramsbury are among those to have signed it.

The letter, published by the Anglican Communion's Environmental Network, said the world was slow to respond to climate change and was hanging on to an "increasingly precarious and unjust economic system."

"It is predominantly black lives that are being impacted by drought, flooding, storms and sea level rise.

"The delayed global response to climate injustice gives the impression that #blacklivesdontmatter.

"Without urgent action black lives will continue to be the most impacted, being dispossessed from their lands and becoming climate refugees," it said.

The archbishops and bishops raised the issue of environmental racism on indigenous people as a result of colonisation, with tribes enslaved or annihilated by harsh conditions or disease in the first decades of colonisation.

The letter also warned of the alarming rise in the number of people becoming climate refugees, with 40 million people already displaced and concerns the number could reach a billion by 2050.

They include indigenous people from Central America, and Pacific Islanders in places such as Tonga and Fiji who face the destruction of their homes and cultures due to sea level rise, the bishops said.

And even in the midst of wealthier countries, black people bear the brunt of environmental racism, with dump sites for toxic chemicals situated near poorer black communities, the group warned.

The network has made a series of commitments including listening to the voices of indigenous people, recognising white privilege in the church and the colonial past of the Anglican Communion, and acting in solidarity with vulnerable communities who experience environmental injustice.