I went to an event the other evening, entitled ‘Many Heavens, One Earth: Faiths, the Environment, and Copenhagen’. Oops. In light of various pronouncements in the past 24 hours that ‘the Deal is dead, long live the Deal’.. perhaps putting Copenhagen in the same sentence as ‘faith’ and ‘environment’ might have been a tad optimistic!
Nonetheless, it was an interesting evening, hosted in that most congenial of venues, Quaker House. Key speakers included representatives from most of the major institutional faiths – Christian, Jewish, Muslim – and those from other sorts of institutional faiths, the UN (Assistant Secretary General, Olav Kjørven) and WWF. These engaging folk had just come from Windsor Castle, where they had been holed up for two days along with Ban Ki-Moon and other global religious leaders to discuss a blueprint for ‘Generational Change’ and 7 year plans by the major faiths to address climate change.
At the heart of the debate, the role to be played by the faiths in supporting commitments on climate change. (What commitments? you might ask..) There was lots for contemplation, and little to disagree about on the broader points being made: that whatever your viewpoint on how planet earth was created, our respect of it was a moral obligation; and that together, the faiths could reach the parts that governments couldn’t reach – that is, people! So too, some hefty statistics to substantiate their role as a key ‘stakeholder’; owners of 8% of the habitable surface of the earth, the 3rd largest institutional player in the financial markets, founders or supporters of over half the world’s schools.. These are statistics not to be ignored. We heard honest views that faiths to date had been ‘pathetic not prophetic,’ inspiring ideas from the Muslim Association for Climate Change Action on Green Hajj’s.
But there were a couple of thoughts that struck me.
Firstly, like business, ‘Religion’ has rebranded itself. It has become ‘Faith’. At a time when growing numbers of people are turning away from, or turned off by the idea of, institutional religion, this is probably a smart idea. Faith is an altogether softer, inclusive, more embracing word. Secondly, the environment provides a ‘fresh angle’ from which to view morality and our role as humankind, and one that ‘the young’ might be more inspired by – a greening, quite literally, and metaphorically, of the flock. The faiths, it would seem, are learning how to market themselves.
But in chatting with a friend over a Chinese hotpot afterwards (these events might feed the soul, but not the body!). we agreed we were disappointed about one thing – where were views from the other Eastern philosophies – Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism? Bound not by bibles and Korans, they are nonetheless philosophies of life that affect millions of people in countries that face some of the greatest environmental challenges in the world – China, India, South East Asia.
And where does business fit into all this? Well, those with global footprints that ‘don’t do God’ (in his/hers/its many manifestations.) would do well to heed their employees, customers and governments around the world, who do. I think we can expect a lot more challenge and debate on this subject to come.