The global consensus for taking urgent action to reduce GHG emissions continues to build as a group of top Islamic religious leaders are calling for fossil fuels to be phased out by the year 2050.
Islamic leaders issue bold call for rapid phase out of fossil fuels
Religious scholars, experts and teachers from around the world unite to make emotive declaration on climate change ahead of crucial Paris summit
By Arthur Neslen
Islamic leaders have issued a powerful call to 1.6bn Muslims around the world to work towards phasing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and a 100% renewable energy strategy.
The grand mufti’s of Lebanon and Uganda endorsed the Islamic declaration on climate change, along with prominent Islamic scholars and teachers from 20 countries, at a meeting in Istanbul.
Their collective statement makes several detailed political demands likely to increase pressure on Gulf states ahead of the Paris climate summit in December.
It calls for oil-producing countries and rich nations to lead by example in phasing out fossil fuels “as early as possible and no later than the middle of the century”.
Clear emissions reductions targets and monitoring systems should be agreed in Paris, the statement says, along with “generous financial and technical support” for poorer countries to help wean them off fossil fuels.
“We are in danger of ending life as we know it on our planet,” the declaration says. “This current rate of climate change cannot be sustained, and the earth’s fine equilibrium (mīzān) may soon be lost.”
“What will future generations say of us, who leave them a degraded planet as our legacy?” the religious leaders ask. “How will we face our Lord and Creator?”
Islamic call on rich countries to end fossil fuel use
By Matt McGrath
It also argues for increased financial support for communities vulnerable to climate change.
The main focus though is on "well-off nations and oil-producing states," who are urged to lead the way in phasing out greenhouse gases, no later than the middle of this century.
The Declaration calls on the rich countries, to recognise their "moral obligation to reduce consumption so that the poor may benefit from what is left of the Earth's non-renewable resources".
"People need to be told and politicians need to stop misleading their people, in telling them they can go on increasing their standards of living for ever and ever and ever," Fazlun Khalid, a long time Islamic environmentalist involved in drawing up the Declaration, told BBC News.
This important declaration comes as world leaders are preparing to meet in Paris this December to try to develop a global effort to reign in Global Warming.