Dr. Mark Collins, Director, Commonwealth Foundation
Dr. Mark Collins, Omar Faruk (Founder Director, Eco-Muslims), Baroness Uddin
Omar Faruk & Baroness Uddin The Faith and Climate Change conference ran alongside the Young Commonwealth Climate change Summit and both shared an opening session addressed by Ransford Smith, Deputy-Secretary General of the Commonwealth and Dr Fatiha Serour, Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme, among others.
Dr Cyrus Rustomjee, Director of the Commonwealth Economic Affairs Division, argued that the ideas and innovation of young people was needed to break the current deadlock in global negotiations on climate change. Dr Mark Collins, Director of the Commonwealth Foundation said that partnerships were required for a more equitable and sustainable future and so it was a powerful act to bring young people and faith communities together at the beginning of their respective events. Dr Farah Faizal, High Commissioner of the Maldives, spoke of countries such as the Maldives being in the frontline of the battle against climate change and suggested that the frontline is a good source of intelligence for the battle. She spoke of the involvement of young people in the 350 campaign and argued that the key to change was the move from plight to potential in the switch from old energy sources to renewables.
In response, youth delegates from India, Canada, Sierra Leone, Singapore, and the Caribbean Region spoke of difficulties in motivating their governments to engage with the issues and laid down a challenge to rich countries to pay the price for the pollution which has caused the crisis and which predominantly affects poorer countries. In a Youth Programme film, young people said that they would not remain silent while their future is threatened.
Delegates at the Faith and Climate Change conference then heard from a panel of faith leaders (including myself - my contribution will be a separate post) who spoke about their faith tradition and its response to the environment. Jeffrey Newman described the central teaching of Judaism as hearing, listening to, and understanding all people who struggle with God as being or existence, the wonder of what is. Ranchor Prime and Dr Atul Shah both emphasised the significance of ahimsa (the concept of non-violence to all living creatures) are fundamental to Hinduism and Jainism respectively. Dr Shah argued that the Abrahamic faiths had placed human beings at the centre of the universe but that Jainism did not do this. Barney Leith spoke of the Baha'i's teaching that the human heart cannot be segregated from the environment; that the two are interdependent and act one upon the other. The Venerable Amaranatha spoke of the simplicity of a Buddhist monk's life and suggested that as we make ourselves peaceful, the environment will be peaceful.
The conference's keynote address was given by Dr Mark Collins who began by highlighting the tendency among Commonwealth Head of Government to be reticent on faith issues due to the complex patterns of religious belief across the Commonwealth. The annual service at Westminster Abbey on the Commonwealth theme was one example of good practice in engaging with faith communities however and in 2008 had enabled faith leaders to address the theme of 'The Environment - Our Future'.
A more positive engagement with faith communities was now emerging through the need for partnerships to address climate change and helped by the Commonwealth Foundation report 'Engaging with Faith'. Faith groups are the cornerstone of civil society, forge networks of trust and united by beliefs in the human responsibility to respect one another and the earth. National partnerships, such as Stop Climate Chaos, were effective in influencing national governments but were less effective in international forums. Faith groups however can mobilise people across national boundaries and interests.
This conference was then an opportunity to send a strong message to Commonwealth Head of Government about the contribution of faith communities to the climate change crisis. This was vital because it is no longer acceptable for governments to squabble over narrow national interests when emergency plans are already in place for evacuations of islands in the Commonwealth threatened with inundation through rising sea levels.
The conference was supported by two Muslim peers (Lord Sheikh and Baroness Uddin) and was organised partly by a Muslim-led multi-faith organisation in Faith Regen Foundation, whose CEO Dr Husna Ahmad spoke on 'Faith and Community Development'. The conference was therefore a demonstration of the engagement of British Muslims with mainstream political processes and issues. This was highlighted by Omar Faruk who, in speaking of the philosophy of EcoMuslim, thanked Lord Sheikh and Baroness Uddin for their personal support and encouragement and spoke of British Muslims as a bridge between East and West.
Prior to the conference focus groups had been held with local communities in Bangladesh, Brazil, Gambia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, and the UK. The finding from these groups were summarised and highlighted significantly different patterns of climate change around the globe leading to very different approaches to the issue by governments, ranging from a lack of awareness to significant action. Often there was a lack of awareness at grassroots level and faith communities were viewed positively in terms of their knowledge and enthusiasm on the relationship between faith and climate change. There was a need to further educate faith leaders on the issue and to institutionalise the faith contribution in political and educational processes but faith communities were seen as: providing support and hope in crises; a source of unity between peoples; having perspectives on the environment; and fuelling action.
Conference delegates also heard about initiatives such as the Earth Charter (which has recently been adopted by the Episcopal Church) and Faiths' Long Term Commitments for a Living Planet, an Alliance of Religions and Conservation and United Nations initiative. Delegates were also offered the opportunity to begin contributing diaries on personal approaches to climate change to the Creative Climate project being run by The Open University and the BBC.
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Mohammed Yahya & Poetic Pilgrimage - Earth Cry.
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