“We very much see the launch of the declaration as the start of a process where we engage the Muslim community and faith leaders to ensure their Muslim voices on these kind of issues on climate change are represented in the wider discussion”.
Advertisement
It was drafted by a large, diverse team of global Islamic scholars from around the world following a lengthy consultation period prior to the symposium.
That’s not a common preamble to an environmental document, but it is how the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change begins.
More than 1.6 billion Muslims have been called upon to urge governments to reach an agreement at December’s Paris Climate Change Summit, after Islamic leaders today unveiled a new Climate Change Declaration in Istanbul.
“I urge all Muslims around the world to play their role in tackling the global problem of climate change”.
Although some 50 countries have announced their goals for limiting climate change as the Paris summit approaches, that total contains very few Muslim countries, prompting the declaration to specifically address them.
The declaration was released at a two-day meeting in Turkey coordinated by three religious-environmental groups: the charities Islamic Relief Worldwide and the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and GreenFaith, an interfaith coalition of religious groups working to protect the environment.
Unlike the Catholic Church with its Pope, there is no supreme unified authority in the decentralized religion that is Islam, suggesting the declaration may not necessarily be supported by imams, worship leaders in mosques, throughout the Muslim world, Khalid says.
“The climate crisis needs to be tackled through collaborative efforts so let’s work together for a better world for our children and our children’s children”, Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, said in a statement e-mailed by the Climate Action Network of non-governmental organizations.
Hakima el-Haite, the environment minister of Morocco-the only Middle Eastern country to present an emissions-cutting climate pledge ahead of the Paris summit-said the declaration could help bring a changed mindset about climate change in some Gulf States.
Advertisement
He said it “challenges all world leaders, and especially oil producing nations to phase out their carbon emissions and supports the just transition to 100% renewable energy as a necessity to tackle climate change, reduce poverty and deliver sustainable development around the world”. “Islam’s teachings, which emphasise the duty of humans as stewards of the Earth and the teacher’s role as an appointed guide to correct behaviour, provide guidance to take the right action on climate change”.
