Academics, Muslim scholars and international environment policy experts from 20 countries have issued the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change at the recent Islam Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul. The collective statement calls on the global Muslim community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels by 2050 and to change to energy from renewable sources.
The declaration includes several detailed political demands which are intended to increase pressure on Gulf States prior to the Climate Change Conference in Paris in December 2015. Moreover, the document criticises the slow progress of international climate change negotiations: “It is alarming that in spite of all the warnings and predictions, the successor to the Kyoto Protocol which should have been in place by 2012, has been delayed. It is essential that all countries, especially the more developed nations, increase their efforts and adopt the pro-active approach needed to halt and hopefully eventually reverse the damage being wrought.”
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