Muslim Scholars Issue Call To End Fossil Fuel Use and Protect Climate

Prominent Muslim scholars have urged world leaders to end the use of fossil fuels and have asked the planet’s 1.6 billion Muslims to consider it their religious duty to slow global warming. The declaration was presented this week during the International Islamic Climate Change Symposium in Istanbul. It says that governments of wealthy nations, including oil-producing countries, should be “phasing out their greenhouse gas emissions as early as possible and no later than the middle of the century.” The declaration includes harsh criticism of developed nations, which the scholars blame for delaying a comprehensive, global agreement on climate change. “Their reluctance to share in the burden they have imposed on the rest of the human community by their own profligacy is noted with great concern,” the document says. Earlier this year, Pope Francis also issued a major statement calling on world leaders and the 1.2 billion Catholics to take better care of the planet.