Hope for the future

Recently, the COP26 conference was held in Glasgow, Scotland. The goal was to agree changes in human activity which would restrict the global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C. (At present, the world is about 1.2°C warmer than it was before industrialisation.) The power to decide what to do resides in the sovereign states - in other words, the individual governments - as we do not yet have one government for the whole world. The ordinary citizen, the concerned activist, the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), can all try to influence governments, but none of them has any power to actually make the decisions which are necessary.

The Bahá’ís of the world, like every other community on the planet, have no control over the COP26 process. But the Bahá’ís collectively are represented at such conferences by an NGO called the “Bahá’í International Community” (BIC) which is accredited to the United Nations. The BIC send a Bahá’í team to each event, usually including individuals with specialist knowledge. At Glasgow, the BIC delegation included a team of young Bahá’ís from Kazakhstan, Kenya and the Netherlands. Their aim was to exchange positive ideas for the betterment of the climate situation with the other bodies present. (A link to one of their news reports can be found at the end of this blog.)

The local Bahá’í community in the area, led by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Glasgow, was also very active during COP26. The Local Spiritual Assembly, working with a small number of partner organisations, set out to support the goals of the conference. Together they organised a period of intense activity during the period of COP26, including devotional meetings (prayers and readings) every morning and evening, panel discussions, prayer vigils, talks, public discussions, online presentations, musical events and children’s classes. They also produced a helpful and widely-publicised pledge for individuals to investigate how they could modify their lives in order to help reduce global warming (see link at the end of this blog). Bahá’ís also offered accommodation in their homes to visitors from elsewhere.

One of the Bahá’ís living in Glasgow also happens to be the Director of InterFaith Scotland. Among other things, InterFaith Scotland organised a march to show that religious leaders support the effort to rein in global warming (pictured above).

There were a number of other Bahá’ís present at the conference, apart from the BIC representatives previously mentioned. My own brother is chair of the Trustees of the International Tree Foundation (ITF), and was part of a delegation from that body. They were involved in negotiations and co-operation with other NGOs alongside the main conference. ITF was also involved in various tree-planting initiatives, including the Clyde Climate Forest, and agreed an arrangement with Glasgow Clyde College to begin planting trees on all properties owned by them. The photos below show some ITF members planting trees in the Clyde Forest and my brother planting the first tree at the college, alongside the Principal of the College.

A number of the Bahá’ís who were present at the conference are members of the Bahá’í-inspired International Environment Forum, which co-operates with and spreads ideas from a wide variety of other bodies. Down To Earth Carbon Ltd was also represented. This organisation is dedicated to helping smallholder farmers and indigenous communities to find more sustainable ways to grow crops. Forest Trends is another Bahá’í-inspired body which sent representatives. Each of these bodies concentrates on one particular aspect of the current situation, and they work co-operatively to achieve the best they can for the planet and for the whole of mankind.

Meanwhile, in the main conference hall, an agreement was reached – at the last minute, as usually happens. Significant goals were set and commitments made by many countries. The governments at the conference, however, still did not succeed in making sufficient pledges to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees. This was particularly disappointing to the small island states, some of which are only a few feet above present sea level, and are therefore at severe risk of being flooded due to sea level rises caused by the melting of glaciers and the polar ice caps. Interestingly, the Bahá’í Faith is well established in many of these island nations. The first Bahá’í House of Worship in the Pacific was built in Western Samoa. By chance, the lady who is the director of InterFaith Scotland was at one time a Bahá’í pioneer in the Pacific, and was involved in activities at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Samoa.

Also co-incidentally, just as the conference was coming to a close, a local Bahá’í House of Worship for the island of Tanna, in Vanuatu, was being officially opened. This is the first local House of Worship in the Pacific region. About three thousand people from across Vanuatu attended the ceremony. These Houses of Worship are open for use by people of all religions or none, and serve to bring the local community together in many ways.

Despite the difficulties currently being brought by man-made climate change, the Bahá’ís are not despairing. We still have time to make a difference, especially if humanity can learn to work together as one. Bahá’ís are building up communities because they have hope for the future.

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A link to the Eco Pledge can be found here:

http://www.glasgowbahais.org.uk/Cop26

A link to one of the BIC reports can be found here:

https://www.bic.org/news/bic-delegation-joins-climate-discussions-cop-26-0

[Photo credits:
IFS march: Sean Miller for Digital Chameleon Studios
Tree-planting: Esther Spencer (International Tree Foundation)
Tanna House of Worship: Bahá'í World News Service]