Press Release Statement
Asian Civil Society and faith-based organisations declare their solidarity to jointly fight climate change and protect the environment
We the participants of the Asian Civil Society Conference on Climate Change and Ecology, affiliates of the Inter-Religious Climate and Ecology Network, have gathered together call for focused action on the Climate Change, Sustainability and Resilience. Representing generations of leaders and practitioners of the Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Brahma Kumari, Animist, Shamanic traditions, we have gathered to share some key messages and actions in common interests of our planet and all living beings.
Communities impacted by unsustainable energy systems have the right to make informed decisions about their carbon footprint. We choose not to do harm as a result of our choices. Our energy choices need to be informed by our moral values and the scientific implications for life on our planet. We are committed to facilitating and supporting community energy education, encouraging an engaged, democratic participating Civil Society.
The Green Energy Tour in Japan visited eco-temples and community-based solar energy cooperatives associated with the network. We visited Fukushima ‘Ground Zero’ to learn of the long-term devastating impacts of nuclear energy on the entire eco-system including human communities. The Exposure Trip in Korea met with grassroots communities whose stability, health and choices are severely negatively affected by nuclear power plants and mega-dams, even in absence of large-scale complex disasters that may strike.
Given the high vulnerability caused by unsustainable energy and the urgency of addressing our greenhouse gas emissions we need to carefully choose energy options which affirm life now and in the long term. Nuclear may seem like a solution, but it poses new and dangerous risks which are not in keeping with science or our value system.
Our society needs healing
A sense of disconnection, separation, and a lack of coherence within individuals and communities is emerging across Asia. Traditional ways-of-life are swept away, disconnecting us from nature, our traditional wisdom and our scriptures. The capitalist and consumerist society we have made, out of our greed and desires, has ended up creating a type of environmental and spiritual violence. It has separated us into rich and poor, haves and have-nots. In the end, such an unsustainable economy will threaten life on Earth. We are compelled to speak out against a system of our making which perpetuates short-term thinking in the interest of higher profit margins for a few.
As cities and village life changes, there is a need to facilitate spaces which support inter-personal and community connections while honoring the values and wisdom of generations to live in balance with our planet, to protect, honor, and love all beings, now and for future generations to follow.
Faith leaders are well-positioned to serve in facilitating our urgent need to heal ourselves and our natural world. Many faith leaders within our network are already taking action with communities, from climate/energy education to solar energy projects, to eco-temples, disaster resilience planning, biogas projects, organic farming and markets development, among other endeavors.
Not all faith leaders, however, have had the opportunity to learn about science and the impacts of climatic change. We need to use religious education and public awareness raising so that civil and religious leaders understand fully the threats to life on Earth. We need to support community based actions and economic transformation which enables climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience. We need to balance economic aspirations with wisdom, education, compassion and sustainability.
The ICE Network and its affiliates and friends commit to enabling climate change and energy education for clergy, through a facilitation and support of applied learning and experiential resource exchange across the network. As a component of these efforts, the 24-25 April 2015 A-Z Climate Change workshop provided a comprehensive teaching space for thirty leaders of diverse faiths.
The conference delegates noted that the destabilization of the climate and the weakening of the environment are due to human behavior. Human behavior is shaped by our thinking, our values and our desires. If the inner world is defined by greed, an over attachment to material wealth and a disregard for the wellbeing of others, then this is what will manifest in our political economy and our physical world. To achieve sustainability and resolve the climate crisis we must address our inner sense of wellness, serenity and our values. We need to study and respond to the relationship between our inner climate and the outer world, our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with nature and other living beings.
Many Asian and other societies have a tradition of a sacred relationship with forests, mountains and other natural sites. With ‘modernisation’ people have watched these traditions be undermined and the sites destroyed. Protecting sacred natural sites, including landscapes and seascapes of spiritual and cultural significance, is part of the process of protecting our biodiversity and our future. It helps us reconnect with nature and fulfill our duty as local stewards.
We all have a history of culturally based systems of collective land and resource management. Now we face the challenge of finding effective global governance of the atmospheric commons. The atmosphere belongs to us all and yet is treated as a rubbish dump. We need to bring back into our thinking and practice the wisdom of good governance of common spaces.
TIME FOR ACTION
A multi-faith initiative, such as ICE, is an asset. The diverse theological reflections on the causes and responses to the climate and environmental challenges are a source of inspiration and learning. They promote cooperation, solidarity and bridge across cultures and contexts.
In finding the common ground between secular development imperatives with diverse theological motivation, we create an opportunity to heal the disconnections, anxieties and competition which is frequently visible in our world. To respectfully work together is an antidote to the historic divisions and self-interest which plagues the political processes nationally and internationally.
We the participants and affiliates of the Asian Civil Society Conference on Climate Change and Ecology, the Inter-Religious Climate and Ecology Network, commit to take the following actions:
• We commit to working as an Asian network to create an institutional platform to support long-term cooperation between Faith-based organisations and civil society to respond to the challenges of climate and environmental degradation. This platform should enable cooperation between Developed and Developing countries. It should be based on building peaceful cooperation between people of different religions and cultures. It should offer a new vision of sustainability that values the human spirit, human health, and the conservation of biodiversity, ecosystems and the health of our atmospheric commons;
• We recognize the willing support of Korean Faith-based organisations and civil society to assist in building a common Asian platform of environmental, energy and climate change solidarity and cooperation;
• We commit to keeping the issues of organic food security, ecosystem and biodiversity conservation, disaster risk reduction and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions together with approaches to human spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing as a holistic paradigm of living well;
• We commit to supporting and engaging with a broad network of actors around the world in joining together in an eco-pilgrimage to the UNFCCC climate talks at the end of 2015 in Paris (COP21);
• We commit to upholding a human-rights based approach to international and national climate and environmental policies, which include the rights and duties of indigenous peoples and local communities to fulfill their role as stewards and custodians of territories, sacred sites and ecosystems as their contribution to wellbeing of all of humanity;
• We commit to facilitating and supporting opportunities for exchanges for local-to-local, inter-faith climate change solution building, applied learning on adaptation, biodiversity restoration and mitigation projects, and inter-religious climate education across the network in full cooperation with civil society and state actors;
• We commit to developing inspirational, mutually respectful and inclusive education and learning exchange through real-time Civil Society platforms and an online platform for sharing and supporting local action for climate justice, sustainability and resilience with the backing of a regional and global network, and supporting local level campaigns with the backing of a network spanning Asia and beyond.
We call upon others to take up similar actions, and we welcome to join us all those walking the path towards climate justice, sustainability and resilience for all beings, for all time. We need to move from selfishness to altruism, greed to generosity, ignorance to wisdom—we hereby express this spiritual message from our diverse grassroots people to the human family. Have the courage to be the change that we need now. We owe it to God, to our children, to all sentient beings. We owe this to ourselves.
