The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change
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The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change was a faith-based collective call of Islamic environmentalism to combat and tackle climate change addressed to Muslims all over the world. It was a result of a 2015 international symposium of representatives of academics, religious authorities, inter-governmental organisations, and civil society across a broad cross section of Muslim communities ahead of the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015–2016.[1]
The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change was launched in Istanbul as part of a two-day International Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul in 17–18 August 2015. Hosted jointly by Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, ISESCO and International Islamic Fiqh Academy, the symposium was co-organised by Islamic relief worldwide, alongside the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Science (IFEES), and supported by climate-based civil society network Climate Action Network (CAN).[2] The declaration was endorsed by the grand muftis of Lebanon and Uganda, along with prominent Islamic scholars and teachers hailing from 20 countries all over the Muslim world.[3]
Message of the Declaration
The declaration is based on an environmental framework present within the principles of Islam, and is part of faith-based climate activism. Its core stems from the essence of a body of ethics known as the Knowledge of Creation (Ilm ul khalq), which is based on the Holy Qur’an.[2] It is part of a spiritual fight against climate change, alongside similar calls by the Catholic Pope and other religious figures. The Islamic Climate Change Declaration iterates a call to reject human greed for natural resources, have respect for “perfect equilibrium” of nature, and focused on the need for recognition of the “moral obligation” towards conservation.[4][5][6]