This week, Muslim leaders and experts from 20 countries issued a strong statement urging Islam’s followers to address the threat of climate change.
“We are in danger of ending life as we know it on our planet,” the statement says. “This current rate of climate change cannot be sustained, and the earth’s fine equilibrium (mīzān) may soon be lost.”
The eight-page declaration was signed by 60 leaders, including the Grand Muftis of Uganda and Lebanon. The statement urges world leaders to phase out fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy “as early as possible,” in order to keep the global temperature from increasing more than 2 degrees Celsius.
“We particularly call on the well-off nations and oil-producing states to lead the way in phasing out their greenhouse gas emissions as early as possible and no later than the middle of the century,” it says.
The statement follows the Pope’s encyclical, and a Rabbinic letter signed by 403 Rabbis on climate change. Our friends at the Shalom Center have published the entire texts of all three documents. Click here.
At New York Interfaith Power & Light, we celebrate these statements by faith leaders and look forward to increased awareness of climate change by the world’s peoples.