There’s a new addition to the hubs for climate researchers, activists and fossil fuel lobbyists at the United Nations climate summit this year: a place to pray.
The first-ever Faith Pavilion, inaugurated on Sunday by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, in a video message, offers space for meditation, daily prayers and even a singing session led by the Indian mystic and yogi Jaggi Vasudev, the calls himself Sadhguru.
The pavilion is also a place for pastors, imams, rabbis and other spiritual leaders to share ideas about how to guide people through the impacts of climate change.
Rev. James Bhagwan, the general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, spoke at a panel discussion in Dubai on Monday about how to bring comfort to Pacific Islanders displaced from their ancestral and spiritual homelands due to rising sea levels and climate disasters .
Mr. Bhagwan quoted Psalm 137: “How do I sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?” and emphasized the importance of faith-based support for displaced people who are struggling to adjust to their new home. Parts of some low-lying island nations in the Pacific, such as Tuvalu, are already being swallowed up by rising sea levels.
According to the UN Environment Program, all religions are based on the understanding that nature is an act of divinity. In the Baha’i faith, nature reflects both the divine and the unity of humanity. In Buddhism, karma means taking responsibility for future generations. According to Shinto beliefs in Japan, spirits correspond to wind, rocks and water, and forests are sacred.
More than 300 religious leaders representing Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Unitarian Universalism and indigenous faiths are expected to take part in discussions at the pavilion during the two-week climate summit.
The pavilion is not just a place for faith leaders to share ideas. They are offering their advisory services to all tens of thousands of participants from nearly 200 nations in the climate talks, known as COP28.
Spiritual leaders from various faiths will lead moral support sessions on several mornings and evenings next week.
So far, the first meetings have only been sparsely attended. But more people could soon be added: According to two negotiators, ongoing climate talks are running into obstacles over how to determine whether countries are meeting the shared goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
More broadly, the failure of past summits to address climate change quickly enough has sparked resentment and distrust among some participants. As world leaders made pledges about their commitment to curbing global emissions, representatives of fossil fuel companies, who attended the summit in record numbers this year, pushed to advance oil and gas interests.
For religious leaders and followers alike, the Faith Pavilion offers a refuge from these tensions.
The messages from a pavilion dedicated to spirituality contrasted with the atmosphere of a summit where the host country, the United Arab Emirates, has welcomed corporate interests, particularly the fossil fuel industry.
“The climate negotiations, as we get to COP28, are all about money, money, profit, profit,” said Athena Peralta, program director at the World Council of Churches. “But the climate emergency is fundamentally a moral crisis and a spiritual crisis.”
Compared to neighboring Saudi Arabia, the Emirates has a higher level of tolerance for religious practice by foreigners, as the number of state-recognized Hindu temples, churches and synagogues is limited.
Still, the government exercises strict oversight over the official religion, Islam, including the content of Friday sermons delivered by mosque leaders. Emirati officials say these restrictions are necessary to prevent extremism.
The experiment taking place at the Faith Pavilion is unusual for the Emirates and other countries where there is tight political control.
“There is nothing that scares governments and even corporations more than interfaith action,” Meryne Warah, the global organizing director of GreenFaith, an environmental group, said at a panel discussion Monday. “When they see faith communities uniting for the same cause, they are shocked.”
Ms. Peralta said she turned to prayer for strength and hope, two qualities desperately needed in the climate negotiations. “This is where we get the energy to keep going,” she said. “Especially with the COPs it is necessary.” But she added: “Prayer without action doesn’t work.”
Vivian Nereim contributed reporting from Dubai.