KAICIID eLearning Course: Faith, Environment, and Climate Change

Designed to address the lack of accredited online academic courses covering interreligious dialogue, KAICIID’s suite of digital learning opportunities is open to both dialogue professionals and the general public.

Faith, Environment, and Climate Change

The eight-week, instructor-led moderated course, ‘Faith, Environment and Climate Change’, was designed in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and, together with the ‘Engaging Faith Actors to Support the Implementation Process of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ course, presented at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) ‘Faith for Earth Dialogue at UNEA 5.2’ event on 21 February 2022 at the. Today, the ‘Faith, Environment and Climate Change’ course has been made available by the KAICIID E-Learning Programme.

Though religious groups have a rich history of activism in the fields of education, healthcare, and humanitarian assistance, they are generally less experienced on matters of sustainability and climate change. However, an abundance of environmental knowledge and inspiration can be gleaned from religious texts and teachings, providing huge opportunities to align faith-based organisations (FBOs) with climate change mitigation efforts.

Indeed, since the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the accompanying 2030 Agenda, there has been wide recognition that religious leaders and FBOs have an important role to play in crafting a more sustainable future for the planet.   

Despite this recognition, it is clear that deeper collaboration between FBOs and key stakeholders — such as government agencies, policymakers, multilateral institutions, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) — is necessary. To achieve this, FBOs and religious leaders require guidance on how best to encourage and evaluate sustainable progress in their communities.

The overarching aim of the ‘Faith, Environment and Climate Change’ e-learning course is to build the capacity of faith actors and empower them to address climate change-related challenges while working towards the attainment of the SDGs.

While designed primarily for religious practitioners, the course is of relevance to policy and decision makers, UN agencies officials, international non-governmental organizations, FBO staff, academia and other experts involved with green policy and environmentalism. The syllabus has been created to help foster connections across faith, science, and secular divides by promoting new climate change-focused partnerships between stakeholders.

Participants will gain an understanding of the complex and interconnected environmental challenges confronting the world, and will be supplied with scientific knowledge, resources, and best practices to address these issues.

Participants will also be introduced to UNEP’s strategic focus and will be taught about the key areas of priority for green policy as communities adapt to our changing climate.

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