Sustainability and climate change in major religions with a focus on Islam

Abstract

Climate change mitigation requires not only technical solutions, but also better insights into the understanding of relevant belief and identity systems, in which religion plays an important role. Human attitudes, convictions and ultimately our consumption patterns will play an important role in climate adaptation and mitigation. Religion is a key determinant of individual convictions and a central marker of behaviour and community belonging.

The report presents findings from the world’s second largest religion, Islamic, on attitudes and behaviours to climate change in countries around the world. Climate change preparedness in several Muslim dominated countries is relatively low in spite of the fact that some of the countries that will be most affected by climate change are Muslim majority.

This report is based on a new survey on Muslim leaders and our assessment of population level datasets around the world focused on attitudes towards climate change.

Full text

Research paper
Sustainability and climate
change in major religions
with a focus on Islam
Vegard Skirbekk and
Konrad Pędziwiatr

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This research was commissioned as part of the Action on Climate & Consumption Project, funded by the
KR Foundation.
Vegard Skirbekk is a professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia Aging Centre, Mailman School
of Public Health, Columbia University.
Konrad Pędziwiatr is an assistant professor at the Centre of Advanced Studies on Population and
Religion (CASPAR) at the Cracow University of Economics
This paper is commissioned by the Humanitarian Academy for Development (HAD).
The views represented in this paper are the authors own.
The Humanitarian Academy for Development (HAD) is a leading learning, research and talent
development centre striving to enhance the skills and knowledge in the wider humanitarian sector
though capacity building, applied research and leadership development.
Islamic Relief Worldwide is an independent humanitarian and development organisation working to
make the world a better and fairer place for the three billion people still living in poverty by protecting
life and dignity; empowering communities; and campaigning for change.
KR Foundation aims to provide answers to, stimulate mind shifts about, and encourage action on, the
long-term challenges faced by current and future generations living on a planet with finite resources,
fragile ecosystems, and climate change.

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Table of contents
Glossary……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. v
List of figures …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………v
List of tables ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..vii
List of maps …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..vii
List of abbreviations …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… vii
Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………viii
1.0 Religion and climate change; a brief motivation and literature review …………………….………1
2.0 Attitudes and behaviours of Muslim communities …………………………………………………………..4
2.1 Awareness …………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..5
2.2 Behaviour…………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………. 19
2.3 Willingness to alter behaviour and reduce climate change ……………………………………….….. 22
3.0 Islam and climate change – empirical analysis ……………………………………………………………… 27
3.1. Data and method…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27
3.1.1 Population studied……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 27
3.1.2 Selection of research tools……………………………………………………………………………………..27
3.1.3 Access to respondents …………………………………………………………………………………………..28
3.1.4 Limitations.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………29
3.2 Key features of Muslim leaders in the study ………………………………………………………………….29
3.3 Awareness of Climate Change among Muslim Leaders.………………………………………………….35
3.4 Climate Change and Behaviour of Muslim Leadership.…………………………………………………..43
4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations ………………………………………………………………………………50
References ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….53
Data sources ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….59

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Glossary
Ayat (Lit proofs of signs) verses of the Qur’an
Hadith A collection of traditions containing saying of the prophet Mohammed which
constitutes the major source of guidance for Muslims apart from the Qur’an
Khalifah the name given to human vice-regency over the earth
Mizan a Qur’anic term denoting balance or harmony
Ummah a construct denoting transnational unity of Muslims.
List of figures
Figure 1.1 Percentage of Muslim respondents who consider climate change as a very
serious problem, by country
Figure 2.2 Percentage of Muslim respondents who consider climate change as a very
serious problem, by country
Figure 3.3 Percentage of Muslims who are very concerned about climate change, by
country
Figure 4.4 Percentage of Muslims who are very concern about climate change, by country
Figure 5.5 Percentage of Muslims consider climate change as the most important problem
of the world, by country
Figure 6.6 Proportion of Muslims who consider environmental pollution as the most serious
problem in the world, by country.
Figure 7.7 Proportion of Muslim respondents who chose the statement "protecting the
environment even if it causes slower economic growth and some job losses", by
country
Figure 8.8 The percentages of Muslim respondents who choose "pollution of rivers, lakes
and oceans", "global warming and the greenhouse effect" and "loss of plant or
animal species or biodiversity" as a serious problem for the world, by country
Figure 9.9 The timing of harming impact of climate change on the global population
Figure 10.10 The timing of harming impact of climate change on the global population
according to Muslims, by country
Figure 11.11 Distribution of answers among Muslims for the question "Do you think climate
change is making life in [country] better or worse, or haven’t you heard enough
to say?"
Figure 12.12 Distribution of answers among Muslims for the question "Do you think climate

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change is making life in [country] better or worse, or haven’t you heard enough
to say?", by country
Figure 13.13 The percentage of Muslims concerning about chosen consequences of climate
change, by country
Figure 14.14 Percentage of Muslims who have taken action aimed at helping to fight climate
change, by country
Figure 15.15 The percentage of Muslims who would agree to an increase in taxes if the extra
money would be used to prevent environmental pollution, by country
Figure 2.16 Percentage of Muslim respondents that would be willing to give part of their
income or pay more taxes, if they were sure that the money was used to combat
climate change, by country.
Figure 16.17 Distribution of answers on where policies in this area of protection of the
environment should be decided, by country
Figure 17.18 Share of respondents support the statements (1) "Rich countries, such as the
U.S., Japan and Germany, should do more than developing countries because
they have produced most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions so far" and (2)
"Developing countries should do just as much as rich countries because they will
produce most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions in the future", by country
Figure 18.1 Number of respondents by sex
Figure 19.2 Number of Muslim leadership respondents by Islamic school of jurisprudence
Figure 20.3 Number of respondents by a role played in community
Figure 21.4 Number of people in contact with per week through work as a Muslim leader
Figure 22.5 Share of respondents by cause of climate change
Figure 23.6 How much Muslim leaders have thoughts about climate change before they took
part in the research?
Figure 24.7 When do you think climate change will harm people substantially?
Figure 25.8 The major causes of climate change (high importance)
Figure 26.9 Dealing with the problem of climate change should be given priority, even if it
causes slower economic growth and some loss of jobs (%)
Figure 27.10 The leaders of my religious community adequately address the issues of climate
change in their communication with their congregations (%)
Figure 28.11 Muslim religious leaders should be more active in actions related to climate
change
Figure 29.12 Whose responsibility is it to address the problem of climate change?
Figure 30.13 Would you promote that one should limit population size and have fewer
children to lower population growth and thereby curb climate change? (%)
Figure 31.14 Would you promote reducing consumption and more environmentally friendly
consumption patterns? (%)
Figure 32.15 Willingness to change behavious through the follow measures to minimize
climate change (%)

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List of tables
Table 1 Actions aiming at helping to fight climate change taken by Muslims, by country
List of maps
Map 1 Distribution of the Muslim leaders who took part in the survey
List of abbreviations
CCS Carbon capture and storage
C02 Carbon dioxide
IPCC Intergovernmental panel on Climate change
LiT Living in Transition survey
UN United Nations
WVS World Values Survey

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Summary
Background
Climate change mitigates adaptation and requires not only technical solutions, but also better
insights in the understanding of relevant belief and identity systems, in which religion plays an
important role. Human attitudes, convictions and ultimately our consumption patterns will play
an important role in climate adaptation and mitigation. Religion is a key determinant of
individual convictions and a central marker of behaviour and community belonging.
The report presents findings from the world’s second largest religion, Islam, on attitudes and
behaviours to climate change in countries around the world. Climate change preparedness in
several Muslim dominated countries is relatively low in spite of the fact that some of the
countries that will be most affected by climate change are Muslim majority.
This report is based on a new survey on Muslim leaders and our assessment of population level
datasets around the world focused on attitudes towards climate change.
Data
Muslim leader’s survey: The research team has designed a carried out its own survey in English,
French, Russian, Arabic and Turkish among the Muslim leaders whom it identified as a key
influencers within larger Muslim populations. The data was collected for slightly over 3 months
from the beginning of July 2018 till mid-October 2018. We have invited numerous Muslim
leaders worldwide to fill in the questionnaire on paper or electronically and asked various
Muslim organisation (e.g. Muslim Council of Britain, Turkish Diyanet, Egyptian Dar al-Ifta and Al-
Azhar, as well as Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs – to name a few) to help us reaching
Muslim leaders and invite them to the survey. Our sample consists of 150 respondents from
countries of Global South and North.

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Background study: The report paints a broader picture of the views and attitudes of Muslim
populations around the world towards the environment and climate change. Our assessment of
background data using existing data on ecological views among Muslim populations in countries
around the world builds on data from World Values Survey (WVS), Pew Research Center's
Global Attitudes Survey, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's Living in
Transition Survey (LiT) and Afrobarometer Survey that are well known and widely used in the
scientific community.
Findings
There is wide variation in Muslims’ views on climate change according to nation. One example
of our finding is that the proportion who considers climate change a serious problem ranges
from below a third in countries such as Pakistan to more than two thirds in Uganda and India.
Turning to the findings from the Muslim leader survey, we find that a vast majority (around
four fifths) perceive humans to be partially or mainly responsible for ongoing climate change.
Moreover, we find that almost half of the Muslim leaders think climate change harm
individuals now. Among the respondents, 53% of the surveyed Muslim leaders believe that the
effects of the climate change will probably or very likely lead to the end of the human
existence on Earth.
More than four fifths think that the Muslim religious leaders should be more active in actions
related to climate change and above two thirds of the Muslim religious leaders think they
should promote that individuals should consume less and switch to environmentally friendly
consumption patterns.
In terms of stabilizing or decreasing demographic growth to reduce climate change, Muslim
religious leaders are split and on average much more negative than when it comes to

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consumption. While 33% of the religious leaders believe they should promote less population
growth to curb climate change, 42% disagree with this and 26% are indifferent or need more
information to decide.
Understanding the knowledge and views of Muslim populations and Muslim leaders about
climate change and various dimensions of the problem seems especially important as the world
becomes more religious and Muslims register some of the most rapid levels of growth.
In summary, majorities in Muslim communities tend to be well aware of the issues of climate
change and ready even to slow down their economic growth to minimise its effects. A
significant number of them are for example in favour of raising taxes for those who are most
heavily polluting the environment. Many Muslims see their religion as a powerful source of
tools to help preserving the Earth and address the problems of climate change.

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Sustainability and climate change in major religions
with a focus on Islam
1.0 Religion and climate change; a brief motivation and literature review
The Fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
concludes that severe impacts from climate change are inevitable (Allen et al., 2014; Pachauri et
al., 2014). It is widely acknowledged that such ecological threats do not only require technically
oriented solutions, but also a better social understanding. Understanding climatic and
environmental change – and how to effectively respond to these challenges – require a broader
societal understanding of what drives societal behaviour contributing to these developments
and what determines adaptive behaviours and coping strategies.
Religious affiliation is one of the most important dimensions of identity and a powerful driver of
behavioural patterns, not least among Muslim populations. Yet, there is insufficient knowledge
on the attitudes to climate change determinants. The current report seeks to describe attitudes
towards environmental behaviours and climate change among Muslim populations. It also
presents data on environmental values and beliefs among Muslim leaders using a newly
collected international sample.
Religious beliefs can be important for a range of attitudes directly or indirectly affecting climatic
change, including how it influences consumption levels, population growth, climate change
risks, mitigation efforts and capacity, ability and willingness to adapt to environmental change.
In several of the countries that are or have been projected to become severely affected by
climatic change, including several of those found in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle
East, the affected regions have large Muslim populations. At the same time, Islam is also a large
or dominant religion in several of the major oil producing countries in the world, which thereby

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contribute substantially to global climate change, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, Kuwait
and Iraq (Allen et al., 2014; Mach, 2017; Stonawski et al., 2015).
Religions can affect mind-sets and behaviours in a range of manners that could influence
environmental and climatic outcomes - and how they are dealt with. The risk of dangerous
climatic change is influenced by factors that can relate to religion: what we consume (e.g., meat
versus vegetarian diets; level of consumption, choices of carbon-neutral or carbon-intense
modes of transportation) (Ecklund, Scheitle, Peifer, & Bolger, 2017; Glaab & Fuchs, 2018; Peifer,
Khalsa, & Howard Ecklund, 2016; Stoll-Kleemann & Schmidt, 2017) as well as how many
individuals there are (which follows from differential fertility levels as well as health and
longevity) (Bergstrom et al., 2013; Diamond‐Smith, Smith, & Hodoglugil, 2011; Haq & Ahmed,
2017). Moreover, the degree of fatalism or belief in destiny can affect individual and societal
outcomes in the wake of climatic change (Gerten & Bergmann, 2011; Jenkins, Berry, & Kreider,
2018). According to Barker and Bearce, individuals who adhere to a religion-based belief in end-
of-times scenarios are less likely to support efforts to address climate change (Barker & Bearce,
2013)
Climate change mitigation policies may be more acceptable if culturally sensitive. If such
measures take into account specific religious convictions, they could be more effective in
changing environmentally destructive patterns. Individuals may respond differently to policies
aimed at reducing the magnitude of climate change or improving adaptive capacities, depending
on their religious convictions. (Bush, Fountain, & Feener, 2015; Chan et al., 2012; Veldman,
Szasz, & Haluza-DeLay, 2013)
Religious beliefs are important drivers of family formation, marriage and childbearing patterns,
where those who have a religion tend to be more likely to marry or have children and to do so
at a younger age. This is can be particularly important among at least some Muslim populations,
as Muslims tend to have relatively higher fertility rates, also when accounting for differences in
education and income (Leyva et al., 2014; McCullough, Hoyt, Larson, Koenig, & Thoresen, 2000;

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Schnall et al., 2010; Stonawski, Potančoková, Cantele, & Skirbekk, 2016). Religion can influence
fertility behaviour, through contraceptive use patterns and whether one attains higher
education or prioritizes childbearing (Agadjanian, Yabiku, & Fawcett, 2009; Hajj & Panizza, 2009)
E.g., female Muslim populations tend in several African countries to have relatively low levels of
education, which is a leading cause of high fertility and rapid population growth (McClendon,
Hackett, Potančoková, Stonawski, & Skirbekk, 2018).
Religion and faith is according to several studies among the strongest predictors of community
belonging and identity (Arweck & Nesbitt, 2011; Kashyap & Lewis, 2012; Min & Kim, 2005).
Religious views can influence various sets of environmentally relevant behaviours, including
consumption (Farrag & Hassan, 2015; Gauthier & Martikainen, 2013; Jafari & Sandıkcı, 2015),
diet (Idler, 2011; Khatib & Shafagoj, 2004; Kortt & Dollery, 2014), and political voting patterns
(Berglund & Porter, 2010; Martin, 2012). Beliefs and religious convictions also affects climate
change views, behaviour (Morrison, Duncan, & Parton, 2015; Posas, 2007; Wisner, 2010) and
the degree to which one thinks one could influence outcomes (Arnall & Kothari, 2015; Cannon,
2015; Orlove, Lazrus, Hovelsrud, & Giannini, 2015).
As Mark Hulme argues religions offer “thick” accounts of moral reasoning for acting in the world
and thus provide powerful tools of shaping individual and communal ethical and social
behaviour, including perceptions of the natural environment and attitudes towards it. Most
secular measures of mitigation of climate change rely on the “thin” global values that might be
widely acknowledged intellectually, but lack the necessary multi-dimensionality and are
culturally non-specific (Hulme 2017: 15).
What is not without importance in the struggle for the decarbonised future envisaged for
example in the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change are substantial institutional and
economic resources as well as significant political power possessed by major world religions.
Neither the scientific community nor states possess the power of the religious movements and
institutions to enlist their followers in global causes such those discussed in this report.

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Influential climate scientists are fully aware of the aforementioned features of religion and call
for closer collaboration among religious institutions, policymakers and the scientific community
(Dasgupta & Ramanathan, 2014).
2.0 Attitudes and behaviours of Muslim communities
In this chapter, the report presents a background study for our main research on Muslim leaders
focusing on chosen attitudes towards a climate change and declared pro-ecological behaviours
among Muslim populations in several countries in the world. It presents results summarizing
latest international surveys which include questions on environment, climate change and
religion.
The report used data from World Values Survey (WVS), Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes
Survey, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's Living in Transition Survey (LiT)
and Afrobarometer Survey that are well known and widely used in the scientific community. The
data providers have a good reputation in designing and executing nationally representative
surveys.
There are several issues that should be examined while trying to assess the climate change
preparedness of a given community. This report aims to evaluate awareness of the process, i.e.,
if members of Muslim communities know about this process, its causes, and the likely
consequences (both for the communities and for the world as a whole). The report will examine
if people are worried or concerned about the process. It could expect some spatial differences in
the experience of a timing of climate change. For example, Muslim communities living in harsh
climate could be experiencing the effect of climate change, whereas those living in moderate
climate zones could consider the process as a future challenge that does not and will not
significantly impact their lives. This report also seeks to examine how people evaluate the
anthropogenic impact on environment and if communities have fatalistic attitudes to the
problem or would like to be active in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

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The second important issue is to evaluate what Muslims think about possible actions on
mitigation and adaptation to climate change, i.e. do they feel individual as well as collective
responsibility to address this issue. This report seeks to identify who, according to Muslims,
should take responsibility for the environment i.e. if it is a local problem or that of a national or
international government. The third area that this report focuses on is Muslim behaviours and
acceptance of certain solutions towards fighting climate change, e.g. sharing part of their
income or increasing taxes to have more funds to help the environment. The report will
examine whether Muslims adjust or plan to adjust their behaviours to reduce the emission of
greenhouse gasses. For example, it is important to know what share of Muslims include pro-
environmental behaviours in their everyday life, if they try to reduce consumption of goods,
water, electricity, or if they change to more environmental ways of commuting, e.g. public
transportation or car sharing.
2.1 Awareness
To evaluate the climate change preparedness of Muslim communities, the report will first try to
detail ‘awareness’ and ‘knowledge of the process’ and how they evaluate its importance.
According to Muslim respondents from Europe and Asia surveyed in the 2010 “Life in
Transition” survey 53% Muslims support the statement that “climate change is a very serious
problem”. The percentage agreeing to this statement varies between around 18%. In Bulgaria to
74% in Azerbaijan without clear spatial pattern of answers (Figure 2.1). In the case of Bulgaria,
the biggest difference in answers between Muslims and non-Muslims is observed. Around 70%
of non-Muslims, predominantly Christian Orthodox, declare that climate change is a very
important issue but only 18% of Muslim respondents support this statement in Bulgaria which is
home of almost a million adherents of Islam.

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Figure 2.1. Percentage of Muslim respondents who consider climate change as a very serious
problem, by country
Source: own calculation based on Living in Transition (EBRD, 2010).
Similarly, 51% Muslim respondents of the 2015 Global Attitudes survey (Pew Research Center)
recognize that climate change as a very serious problem. The highest proportion of respondents
supporting the statement was found in 15 countries with large Muslim population in African
countries and India (Figure 2.2). 81% Muslims from Burkina Faso, 77% from India and 73% in
Uganda consider climate change as a very serious problem. While only 21% Muslims in Israel
and 28% in Pakistan support this statement.

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Figure 2.2. Percentage of Muslim respondents who consider climate change as a very serious
problem, by country
Source: own calculation based on Global Attitudes Survey (Pew, 2015).
As previously shown, the majority of Muslims think about the climate change as a serious
challenge. There is a question however, over whether Muslim communities are concerned about this
challenge. Around 38% Muslims in the 2010 LiT survey declare they are seriously concerned
about climate change (opting for 4’s & 5’s on 5-level scale). The lowest percentage of very
concerned Muslims can be observed in Georgia (12%) and Bulgaria (15%), whereas the highest
in Azerbaijan (almost 62%), and in Kazakhstan (47%) among the 12 countries under
consideration.

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Figure 2.3. Percentage of Muslims who are very concerned about climate change, by country
Source: own calculation based on Living in Transition (EBRD, 2010).
Among Muslims who participated in the 2015 Global Attitudes survey, 46% are very concerned
about global climate change. The highest shares are observed in African countries and India,
where the majority of Muslims are very concerned. The highest shares are observed in Burkina
Faso (81%) and India (73%). The lowest support is in Israel 11%, Russia 22% and Pakistan 25%.
Interestingly, 21% of Muslims in Israel declared that it was very serious problem but only 11%
are very concern about the process.

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Figure 2.4. Percentage of Muslims who are very concern about climate change, by country
Source: own calculation based on Global Attitudes Survey (Pew, 2015).
The Life in Transition survey carried out in 2010 shows that only around 8% of Muslim
respondents consider climate change as the most important problem of the world from the list
of eight challenges provided in the survey1. The evaluated importance varies from 2% in Georgia
to 17% in Azerbaijan. The numbers are higher in the Asian countries - former republics of Soviet
Union, like Azerbaijan (17%), Uzbekistan (13%), Tajikistan (8%), Kazakhstan (7%) and Kyrgyzstan
(7%), and Russia (11%) than among the Balkan Muslims (Figure 2.5).
1 The challenges provided in the survey question: (1) poverty, lack of food and drinking water, (2) the spread of an
infectious disease, (3) international terrorism, (4) climate change, (5) a major global economic downturn, (6) the
proliferation of nuclear weapons, (7) armed conflicts, and (8) the increasing world population.

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Figure 2.5. Percentage of Muslims consider climate change as the most important problem of
the world, by country
Source: own calculation based on Living in Transition (EBRD, 2010).
A very similar result can be found in the World Value Survey (WVS) where around 8% Muslim
respondents declared that environmental pollution is the most serious problem of the world
among five problems indicated in the survey2. The highest ranked answer was the statement
that people living in poverty and need, which was supported by the majority of surveyed
Muslims. The highest share of people that considered environmental pollution as the most
important issue was observed in Uzbekistan (22%), Russia (17%) and India 16%. The lowest
support was given in Nigeria and Pakistan – below 1 %.
2 Five problems indicated in the survey: (1) people living in poverty and need, (2) discrimination of girls and women,
(3) poor sanitation and infectious diseases, (4) inadequate education, and (5) environmental pollution.

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Figure 2.6. Proportion of Muslims who consider environmental pollution as the most serious
problem in the world, by country.
Source: own calculation based on World Values Survey (WVS, 1995-2009).
It is widely recognised that economic development often relates to environmental degradation
(e.g. Sachs 2015, Meadows et al 1974, Meadows et al 1992). Human actions have contributed to
destabilizing ecosystems on all continents, particularly since the rise of the industrial revolution.
The widespread assumption of the modern economy is the higher the consumption of goods
and services, the higher the level of well-being. Thus, to maximise well-being, economy has to
produce more to provide means for human consumption. The main objective is to experience
everlasting economic growth. In the trade-off between economic growth and environment, it is
important to know what public opinion considers as a more important goal of contemporary
civilization. In the WVS survey, respondents were asked to choose between two statements: (1)
protecting the environment even if it causes slower economic growth and some job losses, and

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(2) economic growth and creating jobs should be given the top priority, even if the environment
suffers to some extent. In only 8 out of 37 countries with a large Muslim population did the
majority of Muslims prioritize environmental protection over economic growth and job creation.
These countries are Malaysia (75%), Ghana (69%), Uzbekistan (62%), Kyrgyzstan (62%),
Kazakhstan (59%), Tanzania (55%), Libya (55%) and Morocco (53%). The lowest prioritisation of
environmental protection can be observed in Ethiopia (20%), Bulgaria (28%) and Indonesia
(28%). It is worth mentioning that the report has not found a correlation between Real GDP per
capita and the share of Muslims who prefer the protection of environment using WVS data.
Figure 2.7. Proportion of Muslim respondents who chose the statement "protecting the
environment even if it causes slower economic growth and some job losses", by country
Source: own calculation based on World Values Survey (WVS, 1995-2009).
Among environmental challenges that the world faces, global warming and the greenhouse
effect appears to have lower importance than the pollution of rivers, lakes and oceans according

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to Muslims who participated in the 2005-2010 WVS survey. In only 3 out of 16 countries with a
large Muslim community, it can be observed that significantly more respondents chose global
warming as a very serious problem than those who choose other items. These countries are
Burkina Faso (75%), Ethiopia (62%) and Jordan (47%) (Figure 2.8). Generally, the loss of
biodiversity is less often seen as a serious problem compared to water pollution, similarly to
global warming, but there is no clear spatial pattern in this respect. The highest percentages in
all three categories can be observed in Turkey and Cyprus, and the lowest in India and Malaysia.
Figure 2.8. The percentages of Muslim respondents who choose "pollution of rivers, lakes and
oceans", "global warming and the greenhouse effect" and "loss of plant or animal species or
biodiversity" as a serious problem for the world, by country
Source: own calculation based on World Values Survey (WVS, 1995-2009).

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Another important issue in the assessment of preparedness of Muslims to climate change is to
get to know what people think about the timing of climate change impact. There is a question of
whether Muslim communities already observe harming consequences of climatic change. The
2015 Global Attitudes survey (Pew) finds that 76% of Muslims in countries with large Muslim
populations think that the climate change is harming people now (37%) or it will be doing it in
the next few years (38%) (Figure 2.9). Only 11% respondents estimate that there will be no
effect of climate change for many years, whereas 8% claims that climate change will never harm
people around the world.
Figure 2.9. The timing of harming impact of climate change on the global population3
Source: own calculation based on Global Attitudes Survey (Pew, 2015).
3 Question: Do you think global climate change is harming people around the world now, will harm people in the
next few years, will not harm people for many years or will never harm people?

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A country-level comparison of Muslim communities regarding the timing of the impact of
climate change demonstrates that people from Africa on average claim that the climate change
already harms their countries and world. Whereas people from Asia and the Middle-East
indicate that the consequences will be visible in the next few years. The largest group of people
indicating that the impact is already observed are based in Burkina Faso and Uganda where
approximately ¾ Muslims reported this (Figure 2.10). The lowest percentage is observed in
Pakistan (16%) and Indonesia (20%). Moreover, in many countries, there are significant cohorts
that think that climate change will never harm the global population.
Figure 2.10. The timing of harming impact of climate change on the global population according
to Muslims, by country
Source: own calculation based on Global Attitudes Survey (Pew, 2015).

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The confirmation of these findings can be found in the 2016/2018 Afrobarometer survey in
which 8% Muslim respondents from 21 African countries did not see any impact of climate
change in their country. Figure 2.11 shows that 70% of Muslims claim that the process is making
life worse or much worse. However, there are people who think that life is much better (5%) or
somewhat better due to climate change4.
Figure 2.11. Distribution of answers among Muslims for the question "Do you think climate
change is making life in [country] better or worse, or haven’t you heard enough to say?"
Source: own calculation based on Afrobarometer Survey (Afrobarometer, 2016/18).
4 Question: Do you think climate change is making life in [country] better or worse, or haven’t you heard enough to
say?

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Figure 2.12 presents a clear spatial pattern of the current impact of climate change among
Muslim communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The countries from the East note much higher
percentages of respondents that claim that life is becoming worse because of climate change,
for example, the majority of Ugandan Muslims surveyed. 87% of Muslims in Mali, 79% in Malawi
and 77% in Kenya have the same opinion. Whereas, in the West, countries like Burkina Faso or
Benin have responses at around 50%.
Figure 2.12. Distribution of answers among Muslims for the question "Do you think climate
change is making life in [country] better or worse, or haven’t you heard enough to say?", by
country
Source: own calculation based on Afrobarometer Survey (Afrobarometer, 2016/18).

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According to the 2015 Global Attitudes survey, Muslim communities were mostly concerned
about (i) droughts or water shortages (43%), (ii) severe weather, like floods or intensive storms
(27%), and (iii) long periods of unusually hot weather (19%). Those most concerned about
droughts and water shortages were Muslim inhabitants of Africa, whereas respondents from
Asia were more worried about severe weather that can bring floods and storms. The study
shows that long periods of hot weather is more often chosen by respondents from Asia, but the
highest percentage in this respect is noted in Nigeria (42%) (Figure 2.13).
Figure 2.13. The percentage of Muslims concerning about chosen consequences of climate
change, by country
Source: own calculation based on Global Attitudes Survey (Pew, 2015).

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2.2 Behaviour
Figure 2.14. Percentage of Muslims who have taken action aimed at helping to fight climate
change, by country
Source: own calculation based on Living in Transition (EBRD, 2010).
Despite relatively high awareness that climate change is a serious problem, only 13% of all
Muslim respondents of the Life in Transition survey declared that they had taken actions aimed
at helping to fight climate change. Only in Turkey among the surveyed countries, did the
percentage reach almost 20% (Figure 2.14), and the lowest percentage is observed in Azerbaijan

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(2%). It is worth mentioning that 73% of Muslims in Azerbaijan in this study declared climate
change as a very serious problem (see Figure 2.1). In Turkey, 60% of Muslims stated climate
change is an important problem and 20% did something to help (compare Figure 2.1 and 2.14).
In comparison, 77% of Swedish respondents say that the climate change is a serious problem
and 70% took some action to address it. In Germany 63% think it is a very serious problem and
50% took some action. Thus, in the mentioned cases there is no discrepancy between the
knowledge of the issues linked with climate change and willingness to personally address at
least some of them.
Table 1 shows that among those who have taken some actions towards helping to fight climate
change, the most popular actions were related to the reduction of energy and water
consumption. For example, in Turkey where the highest share of respondents declared taking
action to fight climate change, 75% did so by reducing energy consumption, 50% by decreasing
water use at home and 23% by reducing usage of disposable items (like plastic bags).

21
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Table 1. Actions aiming at helping to fight climate change taken by Muslims, by country
recycling
etc.)
Buy seasonal and local products to avoid
products that come from far away, and thus
contribute to CO2 emissions (because of the
transport)
Installed equipment in my own home that
generates renewable energy (e.g. wind
turbine, solar panels)
11.8 29.2 27.9 0.0 43.8 28.5 4.5 18.3 0.0 26.3 9.5 5.3
7.8 17.5 2.3 0.0 3.5 2.4 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.4 1.0 0.0
Source: own calculation based on Living in Transition (EBRD, 2010).
Action
Albania
Azerbaijan
Bosnia
Bulgaria
Kazakhstan
Kosovo
Kyrgyzstan
Montenegro
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkey
Uzbekistan
Purchased a car that consumes less fuel, or is
more environmentally friendly
24.5
5.8
14.0
20.0
22.8
13.0
2.2
9.0
20.0
8.8
5.3
2.6
Reduced the use of my car, for example by
car-sharing or using my car more efficiently
21.6
0.0
7.0
6.7
7.0
26.8
7.8
27.3
20.0
13.9
6.4
4.2
Chosen an environmentally friendly way of
transportation (by foot, bicycle, public
35.3
transport)
0.0
7.0
60.0
36.8
56.1
5.5
27.3
20.0
29.2
11.6
9.5
Reduced energy consumption at home (e.g.
turning down air-conditioning or heating, not
leaving appliances on standby, buying energy 45.1
efficient products, such as low-energy light
bulbs or appliances)
52.9
46.5
40.0
35.1
69.9
12.2
72.7
20.0
75.2
59.8
25.8
Reduced consumption of water at home (e.g.
not leaving water running when washing 35.3
dishes, etc)
41.3
27.9
73.3
50.9
76.4
73.3
36.3
40.0
48.9
85.2
41.6
Where possible, avoid taking short-haul flights
10.8
5.8
0.0
0.0
1.8
12.2
4.5
9.0
0.0
8.0
6.4
1.6
Started separating most of my waste for
16.7
11.7
23.3
26.7
22.8
14.7
15.6
18.3
0.0
22.6
19.0
28.4
Reduced consumption of disposable items
(e.g. plastic bags, certain kind of packaging,
26.5
17.5
20.9
20.0
31.6
38.2
7.8
63.7
20.0
29.9
22.8
13.7

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2.3 Willingness to alter behaviour and reduce climate change
As indicated by the findings presented so far, large proportions of Muslims are aware of climate
change and environmental challenges that affect the planet and their lives, and substantial
shares would be ready to personally address the issues related to these processes. Many
people, however, have not taken any actions helping to fight climate change. The question
remains however, whether Muslim communities would give a part of their income or accept higher
taxes to combat climate change and environmental issues. WVS asks if a respondent would
agree to an increase in taxes if the extra money would be used to prevent environmental
pollution. Among countries under consideration with significant Muslim communities, it was
found a positive correlation between the share of people willing to financially support
environmental causes and the level of income tax in the country. In the countries with higher
taxation, people are more willing to pay even more. The highest positive attitude in financial
support was observed in Iran, Turkey and Mali where around 75% of Muslims agreed with an
increase in taxation (Figure 2.15). The lowest share was in Montenegro (27%) and Egypt (31%).

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Figure 2.15. The percentage of Muslims who would agree to an increase in taxes if the extra
money would be used to prevent environmental pollution, by country
Source: own calculation based on World Values Survey (WVS, 1995-2009).
In the Life in Transition II survey, respondents were asked if they would give part of their income
or pay more taxes, if they were sure that the extra money was used to combat climate change.
This question is different than those asked in WVS because here the focus is exclusively on
climate change instead of environmental pollution. Thus, the lower support of an increase in
taxation than in the case of pollution is anticipated. Figure 2.16 reveals that the lowest
percentage agreeing to this is found in Bulgaria – only 10% of Muslims there would be willing to
pay extra on the fight against climate change, followed by Kyrgyzstan (11%) and Russia (13%).
The highest proportions are observed in Kosovo (51%) and Turkey (47%). As expected, the level
of support is much lower than in the previous question, but the pattern is similar among
countries that participated in both surveys. Support is high among Muslims in Turkey in both
rankings (75% and 51%), and lowest in Bulgaria (39% and 11%) and in Bosnia, in the middle (61%
and 45%).

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Figure 2.16. Percentage of Muslim respondents that would be willing to give part of their
income or pay more taxes, if they were sure that the extra money was used to combat climate
change, by country
Source: own calculation based on Living in Transition (EBRD, 2010).
Another important question relates to who should be responsible for dealing with
environmental issues, like climate change. The vast majority of Muslim respondents in the WVS
survey indicate that policies in the area of protection of environment should be decided by the
national governments or regional organizations, but not by the United Nations (UN). 41% of
people think that the national government should do it, 21% think that regional governments
and 15% consider that the UN is the best organization to decide on the policies (Figure 2.17).
The highest support for the national government is observed in Indonesia (78%) and the lowest
in India (33%).

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Figure 2.17. Distribution of answers on where policies in this area of protection of the
environment should be decided, by country
Source: own calculation based on World Values Survey (WVS, 1995-2009).
Half of the Muslim respondents of Pew's Global Attitudes survey agreed with the statement that
"Rich countries, such as the U.S., Japan and Germany, should do more than developing countries
because they have produced most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions so far". Whereas
30% declared support for the statement "Developing countries should do just as much as rich
countries because they will produce most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions in the future".
Figure 2.18 shows that in most of the countries, respondents agree that rich should do more
than developing countries. The highest support of this statement is observed among Muslims in

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Jordan (66%), Tanzania (66%) and Ghana (63%). The lowest percentages are in Pakistan (28%)
and Indonesia (37%), but in these countries, the second statement that developing should do as
much as developed countries is not more favourable either. The highest support for it is in
Malaysia where majority support it (52%), and in Kenya (49%).
Figure 2.18. Share of respondents support the statements (1) "Rich countries, such as the U.S.,
Japan and Germany, should do more than developing countries because they have produced
most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions so far" and (2) "Developing countries should do
just as much as rich countries because they will produce most of the world’s greenhouse gas
emissions in the future", by country
Source: own calculation based on Global Attitudes Survey (Pew, 2015).

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3.0 Islam and climate change – empirical analysis
3.1. Data and method
Before the report sheds light on the key findings of empirical part of the project, it is necessary
to make a few methodological notes. This would include issues related to: (1) choice of
population for a study, (2) selection of research tools, and (3) access to prospective
respondents, as well as (4) limitations of our study resulting from all mentioned above.
3.1.1 Population studied
Our empirical research focuses on Muslim leaders identified as persons of major influence or
those who play a very important role in shaping the views, attitudes and behaviours towards
natural environment of adherents of Islam, and have a significant impact on their lifestyles and
consumption behaviours. Awareness of the leaders about the issues linked to climate change
and their actions have a paramount importance in the world regions inhabited by Muslims
which are strongly affected by climate change.
Muslim leadership is defined in this research quite broadly, encompassing not only traditional
Muslim religious leadership but also other types of Muslim leaders. Thus, the research team has
approached not only imams, teachers of Islam, chaplains and students of theological seminaries
but also community leaders, village elders and other types of leaders to take part in the
research. Both men and women were included in the study.
3.1.2 Selection of research tools
The key tool used to collect primary data was a questionnaire specifically designed for this
research project. The questionnaire consisted of 40 questions dealing with among others
leaders’ awareness of climate change, religious tools to address issues related to this process,

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personal behaviour of the respondents and attitude of wider religious leadership towards the
problems emanating from climate change.
Before the field work, the questionnaire was tested in a pilot by selected Muslim leaders in
Europe who provided constructive feedback, and the recommended changes were applied to
the document. The main field work was launched using the questionnaire in English and in
Arabic languages in a format of paper questionnaires. Subsequently, the same questionnaire
was run in an electronic survey in English, French, Russian, Arabic and Turkish to facilitate the
process of data collection. Each participant asked to sign the consent form which explained in
detail the project’s purpose and key goals.
3.1.3 Access to respondents
It was not possible to randomly select respondents of our study and construct a representative
sample. As a result, this study used the mixture of purposive and snowball methods of selection
of respondents5. While choosing these methods, the research team has made all the efforts
necessary to reach the largest possible number of participants and achieve inter alia as high as
possible geographic, religious and ethnic diversity of the sample. The research team has invited
numerous Muslim leaders worldwide to fill in the questionnaire on paper or electronically and
asked various Muslim organisation (e.g. Muslim Council of Britain, Turkish Diyanet, Egyptian Dar
al-Ifta and Al-Azhar, as well as Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs – to name a few) to promote
the questionnaire among their leaders. The research team also used pollsters in several
locations of the world (e.g. Iraq, India, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory) who were
collecting data in local mosques and Islamic institutions. The data was also collected by the
Humanitarian Academy for Development and Islamic Relief Worldwide staff in locations across
Africa, Asia and Europe. The data was collected from the beginning of July 2018 till mid-October
2018.
5 In the purposive sampling the sample is “hand-picked” for the research, whereas with snowballing, the sample emerges
through a process of reference from one person to the next. More information on these methods and their advantages and
disadvantages see for example Denscombe 2003: 14-16 and Ruane 2005: 104-120.

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3.1.4 Limitations
The chosen sampling methods bring certain limitations to study results. Firstly, one needs to be
aware that participants of the study may constitute a partially positively-selected group, as
some of them might have decided to take part in the study being interested in this subject.
Therefore, they may have a higher than average awareness of the issues linked to climate
change. Secondly, the sampling procedure is non-random method which can lead to not
representative sample for the entire population of Muslim leaders. This can cause biases in the
collected dataset which does not allow generalizations of the results. Finally, the study was
done in selected countries and does not cover all Muslims communities around the world. Thus,
one needs to bear in mind in interpreting the findings that they are not representative for all
Muslim leaders worldwide, but only represent the views of selected Muslim leaders that the
research team managed to reach during the data collection. Consequently, the data presented
below, having all of its limitations in mind, might be treated as an important snapshot of what
Muslim leaders think about climate change and what actions they take or they are ready to take
to combat it.
3.2 Key features of Muslim leaders in the study
Our sample consists of 150 respondents from countries of Global South and North
1
. As one may
notice on Map 1, the largest number of participants of the study lives in the countries of the
Middle East and North Africa (30%), whereas smaller groups of respondents come from the
European Union and USA (21%), Asia (19%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (19%) and post-Soviet region
(11%).
1
Less than a half of the filled-in questionnaires (71) were those that had been submitted to the research team in
paper format (scanned or original). The remaining part of the completed questionnaires (79) was obtained through
the aforementioned electronic surveys

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Map 1. Distribution of the Muslim leaders who took part in the survey
Source: own calculation.
The project reached both young Muslim religious leaders who were about to finish their
religious seminaries, as well as, older and well-established imams and community leaders.
Slightly over 32% of our respondents were not 35 years old yet while taking part in our survey,
30% were between 35 and 44 years old, over 35% were 45 years old or older. They often lived in
large cities over one million of inhabitants (43%) or below one million (26%). They
predominantly live in cities, less often in small towns (24%) and villages (6%). Over three-
quarters of them are men (Figure 3.1).

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Figure 3.1. Number of respondents by sex
Source: own calculation.
The Muslim leaders taking part in the study represent a very diverse ethnic and religious group.
The largest number amongst them followed Hanafi School of law, followed by the Shafi’i
madhab. A smaller number of respondents followed Maliki madhab (24%) and Hanbali, Ja’fari
and Zaidi schools of jurisprudence (all together 10%). Some participants of the study pointed
that they do not identify with any of the Islamic schools of jurisprudence (Figure 3.2). The vast
majority of the study participants were Sunni Muslims, but the sample included also some Shias.
All Muslim leaders who took part in the study are part of the intellectual elites of their societies
as the vast majority of them (80%) held university degree (Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD degrees
or equivalents of them). Less than one fifth obtained only lower or upper secondary education
(13%) or post-secondary education (6%).

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Figure 3.2. Number of Muslim leadership respondents by Islamic school of jurisprudence
Source: own calculation.
The project aimed to collect views not only from the narrowly understood Muslim religious
leaders (e.g. imams and teachers of Islam) but viewed the category more broadly. Thus, the
Muslim leaders participating in the study included imams (the largest category of the
participants of the study – almost 43% held such positions within their communities) as well as
teachers of Islam (second largest category of respondents). Among the participants of the study,
however, there were also community leaders, students of establishments of religious education,
chaplains and village elder. The sample also included 18% of other types of Muslim leaders,
many of whom were female Muslim leaders (Figure 3.3). This has been partially reflecting the
transformations of gender roles affecting also Muslim populations (Badran, 1996; Esposito,
2003; Khamis & Mili, 2017).

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Figure 3.3. Number of respondents by a role played in community
Source: own calculation.
As shown in figure 3.4, the Muslim leaders extended a significant authority over the
communities in which they were embedded as, most commonly, they had on average contact
with 100 to 1,000 people per week through their religious preaching, teaching or another type
of religious work. Slightly less than one third of the study participants were leaders who contact
up to 100 people. Almost 10% of participants reach up to 10,000 people through their preaching
and over 5% estimated their usual audience over 10,000 people (Figure 3.4).
Most commonly the Muslim leaders stayed in touch with their congregations through face to
face and group meetings (respectively 82% and 60% of participants). However, they have also
used other means of preaching and keeping in touch with members of their religious
communities including telephone (46%), internet (43%) and mass media (30%).

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Figure 3.4. Number of people in contact with per week through work as a Muslim leader
Source: own calculation.

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3.3 Awareness of climate change among Muslim Leaders
Our research found that Muslim leaders are quite well aware of the issues related to climate
change, and that this problem is not new to them. Close to two-thirds of respondents agreed
with the statement that “climate is definitely changing” while one third said that it was
“probably changing” and a minority claimed it was not changing or did not have an opinion on
this. The largest number of respondents (44%) considered these changes mainly man made and
only slightly fewer respondents (39%) supported the statement that these changes are about
equally natural processes and a result of human activities. Slightly over 6% claimed that climate
change is caused mainly or entirely by natural processes.
Figure 3.5. Share of respondents by cause of climate change

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The study shows that half of the Muslim leaders have thought either “a lot” (39%) or “great
deal” (11%) about climate change before being invited to take part in this study. Over one-third
of respondents thought about climate change issues “sometimes” and for 14% of respondents
these issues were new and thought very little about them (Figure 3.6). Thus, the Muslim leaders
can be situated within the world Muslim communities with the highest awareness on climate
change that, according to the Life in Transition survey carried out in 2010, lived in Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan (Figure 2.3 above).
Figure 3.6. How much Muslim leaders have thought about climate change before they took part
in the research?

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Over 48% of Muslim leaders think that climate change is substantially harming people already
today. This suggests that the level of the awareness is 11 percentage points higher amongst the
Muslim leadership than among communities in the countries with large Muslim populations
surveyed by the 2015 Global Attitudes study done by Pew Research Center. Furthermore 17%
respondents think that climate change will start harming people in 10 years’ time, and almost
15% believe that it would become harmful in a quarter of a century. Less than one-fifth consider
that the consequences of climate change will significantly impact people in more distant future
(half a century or more) (Figure 3.7). These findings correspond well with the 2015 Global
Attitudes survey (Pew) that show that three-quarters of Muslims in countries with large Muslim
populations think that climate change is harming people now or it will be doing so in the near
future.
Figure 3.7. When do you think climate change will harm people substantially?

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When considering the main causes of climate change, the respondents believed that climate
change was caused above all by industrial production (over 51% of high importance indications),
deforestation (49%), burning waste (42%), cars and other means of transportation burning fossil
fuels (41%), carbon emissions (39%) and overconsumption (32%). They much less frequently
highlighted other causes like meat consumption (slightly over 15% of high importance
indications) or pollution of the oceans, nuclear tests and catastrophes (21%) (Figure 3.8).
For Muslim leaders the most worrying effects of climate change are weather anomalies such as
severe droughts, floods and more frequent hurricanes (44% of high importance indications),
followed by rise of temperatures (43%). A smaller percentage of respondents see the most
troubling effect of climate change in growing poverty in developing countries (34%), rise of sea
levels (33%) and growth of migration of people (29%).
Figure 3.8 The major causes of climate change (high importance)
Source: own calculation.

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Slightly over half of the leaders surveyed believe that it is “very likely” or “likely” that the
consequences of climate changes will lead to the end of human existence in the world as a result
of men-made causes. 16% of respondents think that it is very likely that climate changes will lead
to the end of human existence in the world and 37% think that this will “probably happen”. This
opinion was strongly opposed by 15% of the Muslim leaders whereas 13% mildly objected it. 18%
said they had no opinion on this. Two-thirds of respondents agreed that dealing with problems of
climate change should be given priority even if it causes slower economic growth and some loss
of jobs while only 5% disagreed with policies that would try to tackle the causes and effects of the
climate change at the expense of the economic growth and 14% neither agreed nor disagreed.
Similarly to Muslims living in Iran, Turkey, Mali, Tanzania, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Burkina
Faso and Bosnia, as shown in findings from of the World Value Survey (Figure 2.15 above), the
majority of Muslim leaders were in favour of increasing taxation in order to address climate
change issues. 58% respondents were in favour of increasing taxes for users of cars and
motorbikes that pollute the environment, whereas 24% of respondent opposed such a solution.
Further 16% neither agreed of disagreed with it and 2% had no opinion on it.

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Figure 3.9 Dealing with the problem of climate change should be given priority, even if it causes
slower economic growth and some loss of jobs [%]
Source: own calculation.
The vast majority of Muslim leaders similarly to numerous authors advocating “Islamic
Environmentalism” (e.g. Shaafat 1999, Schwencke 2012, Ahmad 2018) believe that religion has
an important role to play in politics related to climate change. In their view, Islam offers a very
important set of values and principles that can help to preserve the Earth and address the
problems of climate change. They have quoted numerous Islamic sources which can guide
Muslims’ behaviour to be more environmentally friendly. Some of the most frequently quoted
were the ideas of: custodianship (Khalifah) i.e. that Muslims (or people in general) are not
masters of the creation but are the custodians of the Earth appointed by its Creator/Allah; and
the idea of Mizan or “the delicate balance of nature”. The leaders have also frequently cited
various Quranic verses such as:

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“And cause not corruption upon the Earth after its reformation. And invoke Him in fear
and aspiration. Indeed, the mercy of Allah is near to the doers of good” (Quran 7: 56)
and
“There is no creature on [or within] the earth or bird that flies with its wings except [that
they are] communities like you. We have not neglected in the Register a thing. Then unto
their Lord they will be gathered.” (Quran 6: 28).
Many respondents also argued that people should abstain from overconsumption and quoted
frequently the verse:
“Eat and drink and do not be extravagant, for Allah does not love extravagant” (Quran 7:
31).
Numerous leaders also invoked the idea of preserving the water and particularly carrying for it
and pointed out the following Ayat:
“And Allah has sent down rain from the sky and given life thereby to the earth
after its lifelessness. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who listen.” (Quran 16:
65)
However, when asked if the Muslim religious leadership adequately addresses the issues of
climate change in their communication with congregations, respondent’s opinions were diverse.
Those who agreed with this statement constitute the largest group of respondents (44%) but
almost one-third of respondents (31%) think that Muslim leaders do not rise up to the
challenges related to climate change in their teaching and preaching (Figure 3.10).

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Figure 3.10. The leaders of my religious community adequately address the issues of climate
change in their communication with their congregations [%]
Source: own calculation.
Moreover, the vast majority of the Muslim leaders surveyed believe that religious leadership
need to do more than it does so far in terms of addressing the issues of climate change. 51% of
respondents “strongly agreed” with the statement that “Muslim religious leaders should be
more active in actions related to climate change”, and 34% “agree” with the statement (Figures
3.11).

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Figure 3.11. Muslim religious leaders should be more active in actions related to climate change
[%]
Source: own calculation.
3.4 Climate change and behaviour of Muslim leadership
The overwhelming majority (over two thirds) of respondents believed that Muslim religious
leaders should be much more active in their actions related to climate change. In that sense
they strongly echo the views promoted by numerous actors from within the Islamic
environmentalist movement (Khaleafa.com, Greenramadan.com, and Greendeensa.org – to
name a few) or organisations from the interfaith environmentalist movement (e.g
Greenfaith.org). They did not hide from the responsibility for taking action in face of
considerable environmental changes. The largest number of respondents (75%) said that the

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responsibility of addressing the problem of climate change lies with every person. A significant
number thought that international organisations and individual states authorities had an
important role to play in this (respectively 69% and 68% of respondents). Fewer leaders thought
that major responsibility lied with international companies (50%) and oil producing countries
(43%). In contrast to the findings of the Pew's Global Attitudes survey showing that a high
proportion of Muslims around the world thought that major brunt of responsibility for tackling
the problem of climate change lies with "rich countries”, slightly over half of the Muslim leaders
shared this view.
Figure 3.12. Whose responsibility it is to address the problem of climate change?
Source: own calculation.

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Respondents felt either a “great deal” of responsibility or a “considerable responsibility” to try
to reduce climate change. Only a small minority felt “some” or “no responsibility”. However,
when asked what they would do to address the issues of climate change, Muslim leaders did not
answer in a consistent way. Thus, in our study a similar pattern of discrepancy as observed in
larger representative surveys of Muslims populations where the awareness of the problem of
climate change did not match with adequate behaviour was found. For example, a majority of
the respondents would “absolutely not” or “rather not” promote ideas of having fewer children
and thus limiting the size of the population to limit population size (Figure 3.13). Here, clearly,
the ideas of procreation that are held sacrosanct by all world religions are treated by Muslim
leaders as more important than problems related to climate change. Alternatively, the large
number of respondents does not see global population growth as a serious societal challenge
and recognize a clear connection between the phenomena. For example, while 42% of the
leaders saw climate change as highly important societal challenge, only 25% of them thought in
the same way about rapid population growth. They also did not consider teenage pregnancies
as an important challenge in their societies as only less than 28% marked it as highly important.

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Figure 3.13. Would you promote that one should limit population size and have fewer children
to lower population growth and thereby curb climate change? [%]
Source: own calculation.
The majority of Muslim leaders are not prepared to promote vegetarianism as a method of
reducing climate change. However, when asked if they would promote more environmentally
friendly consumption patterns their answers were mostly positive (Figure 3.14). Respondents
were also overwhelmingly in favour of encouraging implementation of new technologies to
promote greener production and consumption behaviours and supported government spending
for technologies that seek to reduce CO2 emissions such as carbon capture and storage (CCS)
and other such engineering approaches to trying to curb the effects of climate change.

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Figure 3.14. Would you promote reducing consumption and more environmentally friendly
consumption patterns? [%]
Source: own calculation.
When asked how often they had dealt (in their preaching, religious work or interactions with
their congregations) in the last months with the issues of, for example, “too rapid population
growth” and “decreasing biodiversity”, only a small minority of leaders said “often - very often”
(15% and 11% respectively). The most popular answers related to tackling these subjects were
“never” or “hardly ever”. “Rise of sea levels” was yet another theme that also very rarely
featured in the preaching of the respondents in the last months. Much more popular were the
themes of “poverty and unemployment, insufficient food and famine” or “excessive
consumption”. Over half of the leaders say they preached about these topics in the last months

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“often” (40%) or “very often” (38%). Yet, other issues that the respondents claimed to bring up
in their religious work frequently were: “wasting of resources” (35%), “air and water pollution”
(32%), “weather anomalies (severe droughts, floods and more frequent hurricanes”) (30%) and
“rise of temperatures” (30%).
Muslim leaders were ready to change the following aspects of their own behaviour to address
climate change: “to walk more rather than use a car” (72% agree), “to cycle or use public
transportation more than take a care” (73%), “to recycle as much waste as possible” (78%), “to
avoid unnecessary packaging and using plastic bags” (79%), “to buy local products” (81%), “to
reduce water use” (83%) and “to switch off light when possible” (90%). They were, however less
willing to change their behaviours in the following aspects: “to change their diet and eat less
meat and more seasonal food” (56%) or “to take part in a political campaign on an
environmental issue” (60%).

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Figure 3.15 Willingness to change behaviour through the following measures to minimise
climate change [%]
Source: own calculation.

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4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations
The influential German scholar of Islam Annemarie Schimmel wrote in her “Deciphering the
Signs of God" that green colour in Islam has always been connected with paradise and positive
spiritual things, and angels and saints are frequently clad in green clothing (1994: 16). According
to the Islamic tradition green was the favourite colour of the Prophet Muhammad and the
Quran points out that while entering the paradise “Upon the inhabitants will be green garments
of fine silk and brocade” (76:21). But how “green” are the minds of today’s followers of Islam
and the leaders of the Muslim communities around the world? Are they aware of the climate
change and its main causes and effects? What are they ready to do in order to address them?
These are only some of the questions that have been sought to answer with this research.
One of the Hadiths says “The world is green and beautiful, and God has appointed you its
administrators. See how you get your job done” (Hadith in: Masri, 1992: 12). The inhabitants of
the Earth have perhaps not been very good administrators or custodians of the planet (Khalifah)
and through their actions or mismanagement caused significant environmental degradation that
is endangering the delicate balance of nature (Mizan). As discussed above, the followers of
Islam are one of the religious groups that is already or will be affected by climate change in the
near future. Addressing these issues will require concerted efforts of not only all countries but
also every major religion in the world. This is because the problems of climate change have
global dimensions. A recent UN report suggests that there was maximum 12 years left to limit
scale of the climate change catastrophe (Watts 2018).
As the report has shown above some Muslim communities are well aware of the issues of
climate change and are ready to slow down their economic growth to minimise its effects.
However, whereas others that might already be more affected by it, they are less aware of its
seriousness, and take limited actions to minimise its effects, in spite of the fact that several
Muslim majority nations are or will be severely affected by climate change.

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Faith-based conflicts and consequences of climate change are among the top major threats as
suggested by population level surveys across different countries (Carle, 2015; Levy et al., 2015;
Pascual-Ramsay, 2015). Yet, religions have significantly contributed to numerous human rights
struggles around the world in recent decades ending slavery, promoting racial equality, resisting
dictatorship and supporting the rights of the poor. It can be crucial that they use more effectively
some of their mobilizatory potential to address the climate change issues and raise awareness of
them as well come up with innovative methods of reducing human impact on environment. Not
only Islam but also other religions need to more dynamically engage in what Ulrich Beck calls the
“greening of modernity” or a process of reconciliation between nature and humankind (2010:
254).
Within the ummah or the global Muslim community, a particular responsibility of addressing the
issues of climate change lies on the shoulders of the Muslim leaders. For these reasons the report
has focused on this group of people. Our empirical research has shown that the Muslim leaders
are quite well aware of the existence of climate change and the problem is not new to them.
Almost half of them indicate that the climate change is substantially harming people already and
that some of the most worrying consequences include weather anomalies and rise of
temperatures. For majority of respondents climate change is largely a man-made phenomenon
with natural processes playing only a small role in it.
The majority of the surveyed Muslim leaders believe that the effects of the climate change may
eventually lead to the end of the human existence on the Earth. They are in favour of radical
steps being taken in order to address at least some of the issues linked with climate change. A
significant number of respondents are in favour of raising taxes on heavy polluters. They clearly
see a role to be played in the fight with causes and consequences of the climate change not only
by international organisation and state governments, but also by every person on the Earth.
A particularly important role, according to respondents, can be played by Islam. They see their
religion as a powerful source of solutions to help preserving the Earth and address the problems

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of climate change. At the same time almost one-third of respondents think that Muslim leaders
do not adequately address the issues related to climate change in communication with their
congregations. The vast majority thinks that the Muslim leadership should be more involved in
activities related to climate change mitigation. Particularly powerful Muslim organisations and
Ministries of Religious Affairs in Muslim majority countries (e.g. Egyptian Al-Azhar or Turkish
Diyanet) could consider developing policies to educate their leaders about the climate change
and encourage them to address these issues in their preaching and teaching.
Enhancing the knowledge of the leaders about the climate change and empowering them in
addressing various dimensions of the problem could be especially important as the world
becomes more religious and Muslim communities register some of the most rapid levels of
growth (Stonawski et al., 2015). A more religious planet will be more environmentally friendly
only if people fully comprehend their role of “custodians of the Earth” and see the signs of God
in nature and ecological balance.

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