22 September 2014: An Interfaith Summit on Climate Change, organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC), a body that includes 345 churches representing about 560 million Christians worldwide, and Religions for Peace, an interfaith coalition with members in more than 70 countries, has highlighted the faith communities’ concerns and proposals to the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit as part of long-term efforts to influence the climate negotiations.

The Interfaith Summit, held from 21-22 September 2014, as part of Climate Week NYC, brought together global religious leaders from 21 countries on six continents. At the end of the Summit, 30 faith leaders representing nine religions signed a statement, titled ‘Climate, Faith and Hope: Faith traditions together for a common future,’ calling for concrete actions to curb carbon emissions.

The statement, inter alia, acknowledges the “overwhelming scientific evidence” that climate change is human-induced and that, without global mitigation action, its impacts will continue to grow in intensity and frequency. In the statement, faith leaders: recognize climate change as a major obstacle to poverty eradication; commit themselves to promoting disaster risk reduction (DRR), adaptation, low-carbon development, climate change education, curbing consumption patterns and reducing use of fossil fuels; and urge the rich to support the poor and the vulnerable, particularly in least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing States (SIDS) and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Religious leaders further request States to work towards a far-reaching global agreement in Paris in 2015 that would be: ambitious enough to keep the global temperature rise below 2°C; fair enough to distribute the burden in an equitable way; and legally-binding to ensure that national climate policies to curb emissions are well funded and fully implemented. [Interfaith Summit Declaration: Climate, Faith and Hope: Faith Traditions Together for a Common Future] [WCC Press Release on the Fight Against Climate Change] [WCC Press Release on the Interfaith Declaration on Climate Change] [WCC Press Release on Resilience and Climate Change] [WCC Press Release on Personal Faith and Climate Change] [IISD RS Coverage of the UN Climate Summit]