Dr Goosens-Ishii coordinates programmes for Soka Gakkai International, working on the environment from Geneva, where Soka Gakkai International operates from the same building as the WCC.
“Sokka Gakkai is a Buddhist grassroots network. I’m specifically working on climate change, the environment, and biodiversity. That’s why I had a specific interest in the workshop today,” she said in an interview with the WCC.
The UNEP-led Faith for Earth Coalition is a global multistakeholder platform that seeks to facilitate partnerships with faith leaders, faith-based organizations and people of faith at global, regional and local levels to inspire, empower and strengthen action and behavioral change towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A new UNEP chapter in the Faith for Earth development series, How Water is reflected in the World’s Religions (to be published in May 2023) highlights the fact that almost all religions revere and value water as a purifier, part of nature, and a giver of life.
Read More
We all have a role in climate action. We must work together to meet the commitments of the 2015 Paris Agreement. But… what is exactly climate change and what does the Paris Agreement say? What actions are being taken and who is carrying them out? What are the latest scientific reports on the subject? Are we in time to save Mother Earth?
Read More
Muslims everywhere are currently observing Ramadan, a month of fasting and striving to grow their faith through prayer and acts of goodness.
This month also marked the release of the new IPCC report on climate change, which provided the world with an urgent call to action.
“The connection of the inner state of the heart with the outer state of physical action is the very point of intersection at which Ramadan and the new IPCC report meet. As Muslims focus on their worship…it is imperative that they make a very conscious commitment to connect their acts of worship towards the wellbeing of the Earth,” a new op-ed argues.
Read More
Catastrophic extreme weather events like droughts, floods and wildfires impact communities across the world as leaders continue to grapple with balancing energy needs and the global push for climate action.
Although skepticism persists, a broad swath of faith communities advocate for policy change, fight for climate justice, establish creation care ministries, embrace solar energy, plant gardens and more.
Examples of reporting in several different faith traditions are given.
Read More
Perceptions aren’t everything but they can be very powerful. On the face of it, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) appointment of an oil company chief as the next President for the UNCOP28 is not a good look. That’s putting it mildly! There has, in fact, been much colourful criticism. “This appointment goes beyond putting the fox in charge of the henhouse”, said Teresa Anderson of ActionAid, a climate justice charity.
Read More
From Colombia Magazine:
On the morning that Hurricane Ian approached southwest Florida with 155-mile-per-hour winds and a twelve-foot storm surge, Karenna Gore stood at a lectern in Brooklyn Borough Hall and invoked the divine. Addressing a local interfaith conference on preparing for climate emergencies, Gore said, “When I was a child, my own faith tradition taught me that God looks directly at us through the eyes of someone who is in need: someone who is hungry, thirsty, needs clothes — much like someone affected by a disaster.”
Read More
Extensively revised and in full color. Each chapter begins with an accessible story about the dynamics of Nature: the origins of the universe, the planet, and life; the workings of cells and organisms; the patterns of biological evolution and the resultant biodiversity; awareness and feelings; sex and intimacy; multicellularity and death; and two new chapters on human evolution and morality/ecomorality. Each is followed by a reflection on the spiritual sensibilities elicited by these science-based understandings, generating the foundations for a non-theistic religious naturalist orientation
Read More
The Asia Pacific Women of Faith Network (APWoFN) held its first of three climate change webinars on Tuesday 29th November. It was a frank and powerful analysis of current regional experiences of escalating climate change. This paper is drawn from its many valuable contributions . This paper is the presentation by Chair of Religions for Peace Australia, Ms Philippa Rowland to the China Committee on Religion and Peace 3rd International Seminar on Religions and Ecological Civilization, Beijing, 21 December 2022.
Read More
The China Committee on Religion and Peace (CCRP) and Religions for Peace International jointly invite you to attend the 3rd International Seminar on Religions and Ecological Civilization: Harmonious Coexistence between Human and Nature on Wednesday, December 21, 2022. Presentations will be made by members of the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace, and Religions for Peace Australia.
Read More
The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative has released a new issue primer on forests and biodiversity as a contribution to the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15).
Read More
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology presents a guest blog by Anna Thurston giving a brief summary of faith-based activity at COP27 and the involvement of their partner organization, UNEP Faith for Earth.
Read More