Well, it just so happens that recently, on August 17th-18th of this year, there was an International Islamic Climate Change Symposium taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. In attendance were Muslim scholars, academics, policy makers, experts, and scientists from 20 different countries. Also present were representatives from the Christian and Jewish community, Father John Brinkman and Rabbi Yonathan Neril.

The point of the conference was to discuss and then issue the Islamic Declaration on Climate Change, which calls for Muslim countries and Muslims in general to reduce and stabilise their greenhouse gas emissions in response to the growing crisis of climate change and to recognise the consequences of continuing to emit at business-at-usual levels.

Like all commitments made by Islamic communities, the declaration was based on Islamic principles from the Quran and prophetic traditions (discussed in the blog), calling for the protection of the earth, not being wasteful, and being accountable for our actions.

What’s noteworthy is that the declaration called upon well-off nations and oil-producing states in particular to take the lead in easing off our greenhouse gas emissions, “as early as possible and no later than the middle of the century”. Some other responsibilities these rich nations were given are:

• providing monetary and technical aid to poorer nations to phase out greenhouse gas emissions as early as they can;
• reducing consumption as a moral obligation to poorer nations;
• staying within the 1.5-2 degree limit of temperature increase keeping in mind that only 2/3 of the earth’s fossil fuels are left in the ground; and
• investing in a green economy.

The declaration didn’t leave out non-Muslim countries, their citizens and their leaders either, calling on them to (among other points):

• commit to 100% renewable energy and/or zero emissions;
• phase out greenhouse gases as soon as possible; and
• realise the irrationality of unendingly pursuing unlimited economic growth, of which the proof of its destruction is clear to see today.

Lastly, the declaration called on corporations and banks to bear the burdens of their profit-making activities, transform their current business models to more ecologically sustainable ones, and to play their part in divesting from the fossil fuel driven economy and investing in renewable alternatives.

You can read the full declaration at its official website here: http://islamicclimatedeclaration.org/islamic-declaration-on-global-climate-change/