Leaves 17(9) September 2015

---

After drafting work by a group of leading academics, and wide circulation for consultation, an Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change was adopted at an international Islamic Climate Change Symposium, held in Istanbul, Turkey, on 17-18 August 2015(1) (see also on IEF web site). The document is a significant addition to other religious declarations on this critical issue for the future of humanity, alongside those of the Bahá'í International Community's statement in 2008: Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the Challenge of Climate Change (2) and the Pope's June 2015 encyclical Laudato Si': on care for our common home (3) reviewed on this web site (4), among others.

The symposium brought together leading Muslim scholars, diplomats and experts from across the Muslim world, as well as other leading experts from different faiths. One of the speakers at the Symposium was International Environment Forum member Dr. Halldor Thorgeirsson from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat.

The Islamic Declaration is divided into three parts: a preamble that sets the scientific context, a set of affirmations of principles based on Qur'anic texts, and calls addressed to particular groups to take up their responsibilities for responding to climate change.

The preamble starts by setting the Islamic context, acknowledging Allah (God) as the creator of the universe, and human responsibility to serve the Lord of all beings. It then summarizes in several paragraphs the current scientific understanding of climate change and its human causes, causes which are in contradiction with our responsibility to be the caretaker of the earth and to maintain its equilibrium. It lists various reasons for concern, including the risks to the poor and disadvantaged, and risks of abrupt and irreversible changes. It notes with alarm that we are accelerating our own destruction and approaching the threshold for catastrophic climate change. It calls for a proactive approach to halt and hopefully reverse the damage being wrought. As with the Pope's encyclical and long-standing Bahá'í principles, this section demonstrates the new convergence of science and religion on environmental issues.

The affirmations of Qur'anic principles bring out the spiritual foundations of the need to act on climate change. Allah is the Lord, Creator and Sustainer of all beings, and He encompasses all of His creation. He created the Earth in a perfect equilibrium of natural resources and cycles in which all living beings thrive. Humans have corrupted the Earth in their pursuit of economic growth and consumption, causing climate change, pollution, soil erosion and deforestation, and damage to human health. Humans are exceptionally powerful, with a responsibility to establish good and to avert evil, with no right to oppress the rest of creation or to cause it harm. Our intelligence and conscience require us to treat all things with care, compassion and utmost good. We are accountable for all our actions. The section concludes with our responsibility to follow the example of the Prophet Muhammad, Who protected the rights of all living beings, conserved water, established protected areas, lived a frugal life free of excess and ostentation, renewed and recycled his possessions, ate simple healthy food with little meat, and took delight in the created world.

Such themes are common to many religious traditions. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, speaking at Stanford University in 1912, stated that "The elements and lower organisms are synchronized in the great plan of life"; then He asked, "Shall man, infinitely above them in degree, be antagonistic and a destroyer of that perfection?"(5) He also wrote that "it is not only their fellow human beings that the beloved of God must treat with mercy and compassion, rather must they show forth the utmost loving-kindness to every living creature."(6) He similarly set an example of a simple life.

Calls to Groups to Take Up Their Responsiblities for Climate Change. The third part of the Declaration issues calls to significant actors responsible for climate change. The Paris Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 30 November-11 December 2015, should bring its discussions to an equitable and binding conclusion, with the enormous responsibility to lead all of us to a new way of relating to God's Earth. The well-off nations and oil-producing states should lead in phasing out greenhouse gas emissions to stay within a 2°C or preferably 1.5°C limit for global warming, leaving two-thirds of the earth's proven fossil fuel reserves in the ground, and investing in the creation of a green economy. They have a moral obligation to reduce consumption so that the poor may benefit, to preserve the environment rather than profiting unethically from it, and to elevate the condition of the world's poor.

The Declaration makes a broad call to the people of all nations and their leaders to phase out greenhouse gas emissions and to commit to decentralized renewable energy. Economic growth should be pursued wisely and in moderation, with priority to adaptation and increasing resilience to climate-change impacts, especially for the most vulnerable. The Declaration calls for "a fresh model of wellbeing, based on an alternative to the current financial model which depletes resources, degrades the environment, and deepens inequality". Corporations, finance and the business sector should shoulder the consequences of their profit-making activities, reducing their carbon footprint and environmental impacts, committing to and shifting investments into renewable energy while divesting from the fossil-fuel-driven economy. They should change from the current business model that is based on an unsustainable escalating economy, and adopt a circular economy that is wholly sustainable and more socially and ecologically responsible. All groups are invited to join in collaboration, cooperation and competition in good deeds, in particular welcoming the significant contributions of other faiths offering the best of their respective traditions, since all can be winners.

The final call is to all Muslims, with a long list from Heads of State to congregations and community activists, not to "strut arrogantly on the earth", and to bear in mind the Hadith that "The world is sweet and verdant, and verily Allah has made you stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves."

Conclusion. Common themes among the three declarations from Islam, the Catholic Church and the Bahá'ís are the link between poverty and climate change, and the fact that these are both symptoms of an underlying spiritual illness, requiring a significant transformation in the materialistic economy. Such declarations have the potential to take their messages of planetary responsibility far beyond what scientific declarations or even government efforts can reach. Their acceptance of the scientific reality of climate change, combined with an ethical and spiritual message of responsibility to act, will reinforce efforts to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The fact that many oil-producing nations are dominantly Muslim, and that the Islamic Declaration specifically targets these states and calls for the oil to be left in the ground, should have particular impact in the years ahead. The opening to interfaith collaboration is also welcome in helping to counteract growing religious intolerance in many quarters.

The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change can be another important milestone in the necessary planetary mobilization to try to head off catastrophic climate change.

---

1. International Islamic Climate Change Symposium. 2015. Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change. http://islamicclimatedeclaration.org/islamic-declaration-on-global-clim… and https://iefworld.org/node/750#Islamic_Declaration

2. Bahá'í International Community. 2008. Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the Challenge of Climate Change. Statement presented at COP14, Poznan, Poland, 2008. https://www.bic.org/statements/seizing-opportunity-redefining-challenge…

3. Pope Francis. 2015. Laudato Si': on care for our common home. Encyclical (18 June 2015) http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-fr…

4. Dahl, Arthur Lyon. 2015, Summary and Commentary on Laudato Si': the Pope's encyclical on the environment and poverty. International Environment Forum, https://iefworld.org/ddahl15d and https://iefworld.org/fl/LaudatoSi_commentary2015.pdf

5. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, talk at Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto, California, 8 October 1912. Promulgation of Universal Peace. Wilmette, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1982. p. 350

6. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 158-159.

Islamic Call on Climate Appeals to 1.6 Billion Muslims

Posted: 08/20/2015 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yonatan-neril/islamic-climate-change-de_b…

Muslim clergy issued a bold Declaration on climate change at the Islamic Climate Change Symposium this week, as the Huffington Post recently reported. I had the honor of participating in the Symposium in Istanbul and speaking as the Jewish representative in the interfaith session of the event.

Istanbul served as a fitting venue for the Symposium, since it reveals many of the causes of and solutions to climate change. Home to fourteen million people, it is Europe's largest city, the fifth largest city in the world, and has grown ten-fold since 1950. Its metro is the third largest in the world, with 800,000 daily riders, and a separate Metrobus system has 600,000 daily riders. Car ownership is low compared to elsewhere in Europe, with 75% of the population relying on alternative forms of transportation. Yet, according to the World Bank, Istanbul's sulfur dioxide combined with its vehicular and industrial air pollution makes it the seventh most polluted city in the world. Istanbul has been engaged in a fast rate of economic growth for the past 20 years and boasts the largest number of shopping malls of any European city.

Istanbul also likely has the greatest number of vendors standing between lanes of car traffic selling water on a hot August day. Undoubtedly, some of these vendors are among the 1.7 million Syrian refugees Turkey has absorbed due to the neighboring conflict. A recent scientific study contends that the war started in part due to a four-year drought exacerbated by climate change. Thomas Friedman reminds us today of the way climate change is impacting the Middle East in his eye-opening piece, "The World's Hot Spot."

A Muslim megacity that is growing rapidly in population and material wealth - two main drivers of climate change - therefore served as an apt site for an Islamic Climate Change Symposium. The Symposium centered upon the launch of the Islamic Climate Change Declaration. Muslim clerics gathered with clergy of other faiths to offer, in the words of the Declaration, an "urgent and radical reappraisal" of modern society. The Symposium delivered a moral call to change course. The Declaration stated, "We note with alarm the combined impacts of rising per capita consumption combined with the rising human population" (p. 2).

The Declaration was put forth as a Muslim teaching on care for our common home, exactly two months after the release of Pope Francis' groundbreaking Encyclical, Laudato Si. A Catholic symposium on climate change: People and Planet First, took place in late June, organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and CIDSE.

The Islamic Declaration reads with a similar air of spiritual richness and scientific calculation as Laudato Si, although it is less lengthy, and the world's 1.7 billion Muslims do not recognize a unifying religious authority like the Pope. Nevertheless, three Grand Muftis, clerics from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Indonesia endorsed the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change and spoke at the Symposium.

The Declaration was written by an international group of Islamic scholars, with a vision to draw on their ancient tradition to provide solutions to the modern crisis of climate change. These scholars include Prof. Din Syamsuddin, President of the Indonesian Ulama (Islamic Scholars) Council, representing Indonesia's 200 million Muslims, and Fazlun Khalid, founder of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environment Sciences (IFEES). The Symposium was co-organized by IFEES, Green Faith, and Islamic Relief Worldwide, and drew significant international figures, including the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Ibrahim Thiaw.

The Declaration incorporates this excerpt from the Koran: "Corruption has appeared on land and sea. Because of what people's own hands have wrought, so that they may taste something of what they have done; so that hopefully they will turn back" (30:41). Based on this, the Declaration states,

We recognize the corruption (fasad) that humans have caused on the Earth due to our relentless pursuit of economic growth and consumption. Its consequences have been--
• Global climate change, which is our present concern, in addition to:
• Contamination and befoulment of the atmosphere, land, inland water systems, and seas;
• Soil erosion, deforestation and desertification;
• Destruction, degradation, and fragmentation of the habitats of the earth's communities of life, with devastation of some of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems such as rainforests, freshwater wetlands, and coral reefs;
• Impairment of ecosystem benefits and services;
• Introduction of invasive alien species and genetically modified organisms;
• Damage to human health, including a host of modern-day diseases.

Notably the Declaration also states, "We call on the people of all nations and their leaders to...Realize that to chase after unlimited economic growth in a planet that is finite and already overloaded is not viable. Growth must be pursued wisely and in moderation", and "We call upon corporations, finance, and the business sector to change from the current business model which is based on an unsustainable escalating economy, and to adopt a circular economy that is wholly sustainable."

I am impressed by the breadth and profundity of what is written in this Declaration. It is not only about climate change, but about 'care for our common home' in a broad sense. It reminds me of a teaching of Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler: "Human beings believe, in their arrogance, that if they continue developing the world on the basis of an ever-expanding science and technology, they will eventually achieve an environment that will afford everyone unlimited gratification of the senses and a life of untrammeled ease and pleasure. There can be no greater error than this."

The organization that I founded and direct, the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, will soon present the Arabic version of the Declaration to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

To quote Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, I was "witness to the dignity of difference and the power of faith to heal a fractured world." I am proud to have taken part in this significant step forward for the world's Muslims and all of humanity, and to find common cause with my Muslim brothers and sisters in faith to enable our children to inherit a livable planet.

Sarah Lyons and Dalia Gladstein contributed to this post.

ebbf - Ethical Business Building the Future

ebbf (http://ebbf.org/) is a Baha’i-inspired global learning community that accompanies mindful individuals and groups, through daily work and discourse to transform business and the economy, thereby contributing to a prosperous, just and sustainable civilization

ebbf’s seven foundational principles:
unity
justice
moderation
service
gender equality
sustainability
human nobility

ebbf’s 2014 impact at a glance
• 50 countries with active ebbf members
• 250 events every year
• 30 publications
• 100 ebbf members every day of the year create a positive action in their workplace inspired by an ebbf speaker, meeting, article, idea
• 40 ebbf meaningful hangout online learning events
• 904 innovators in ebbf’s online members’ platform
• 10,000 people reached through ebbf events every year.

For the next three years our vision is to:
• identify emerging issues and opportunities
• engage in constructive discourse
• influence, by transforming thinking and action
• empower others to take action ensure continuity and replication
• applying spiritual principles to all of the above.

Goal:
We aim to impact 100,000 people by 2019 and 1,000,000 people by 2024.

The 25th ebbf annual conference on "Unity and Collaboration" will be in Barcelona, Spain, on 1-4 October 2015, see http://ebbf.org/event/ebbf-annual-conference-celebrating-ebbfs-25th-ann…. IEF and ebbf collaborate closely and two IEF board members, Wendi Momen and Arthur Dahl, are also board members of ebbf.

---