Update #5

The Shinto Faith Statement has been added. Shinto means ‘Way of the Gods’. It is the traditional and ancient religion of Japan, without a founder or sacred scriptures, which regards all natural things as having their own spirituality. Traditional Shinto was not organized into a religion. It reveres kami, the indigenous folk deities of Japan – spirits present in animals, plants, and even stones and waterfalls. Read more here.

The Confucian Statement on the Environment has been added. The Confucian understanding of the universe as a holistic unity emphasises the responsibility of every person to behave respectfully and with care to contribute to the general wellbeing of creation, acting as an orderly part of a collective effort. In this way the interests of humanity are served by looking after the interests of all of nature. Read more here

COP26: SDG or NDC? The Acronyms of the Climate Change Conference. If you’ve been following the UN for any period of time, you will quickly notice the plethora of acronyms, initialisations and jargon that abound across the Organization. There will be plenty more to confuse you at COP26 (a classic example in itself), so here’s our handy guide to help you make sense of some of the key buzz words you’ll be hearing, as the landmark climate change conference gets going. Read more here.

This week, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology released a new religiously-engaged Ecojustice Resource Hub! Their team has been working hard this year to bring this project to fruition, and we’re very pleased to finally unveil it. The EcoJustice resource hub offers:

• A landing page with links to background information on, and histories of, the movement
• Several bibliographies, tailored to the users needs
• Tradition-specific lists of environmental justice-related resources for 11 of the world’s religions, plus Interreligious, organized by type of resource (book, article, multimedia, etc)

Go to the EcoJustice Resource Hub.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has given a statement on the COP-26 meeting. States attending the COP-26 meeting in Glasgow, starting Sunday, need to fulfil their existing climate finance commitments, and indeed increase them — not ignore them for a second year in a row. They need to immediately mobilize resources to mitigate and adapt to climate change. You can read the UNHCR statement.

This week, the Faith Plans for People and Planet site was launched, an exciting project organized by WWF and FaithInvest. The project involves faith groups around the world creating step by step plans on how they will take concrete action to help the planet. The Faith Plans programme has identified Seven Key Areas where religions can have a significant impact on the environment through their resources and traditions. Read more about Faith Plans