JAKARTA (UCAN): Interreligious groups in Indonesia have held a series of demonstrations outside churches and mosques in Jakarta calling on the government to commit to addressing climate change at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) scheduled to be held in Glasgow, from October 31 to November 12 an upcoming international conference on global warming.
Continued reliance on fossil fuels, deforestation and increasing air pollution caused by fires show a lack of sincerity by the government in dealing with an increasing number of ecological disasters, they said.
Protesters gathered outside about a dozen places of worship in the Indonesian capital on October 17 to press their message home, including Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, and Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral Church.
The gathering was part of a global campaign to put pressure on governments attending COP26 to come up with concrete solutions to prevent global warming.
The global campaign is being mounted by Faiths for Climate Justice, a movement of interreligious communities organised by the GreenFaith International Network.
“The government must realise Indonesia is particularly at risk from rising sea levels, flooding and other disasters, so needs to act now,” the protesters said in a statement.
“Religious communities in Indonesia call on our government and world leaders attending COP26 to end the fossil fuel era, reverse deforestation and push a global green deal ensuring clean energy and a friendly environment,” it said.
Hening Parlan, chairperson of the environment division of Aisyiyah, an Indonesian Islamic non-governmental organisation dedicated to female empowerment and a founding partner of GreenFaith International-Asia, said people and governments have ignored religious values and in so doing have destroyed the environment.
“Protection and concern for the environment is a noble jihad,” Parlan said.
He said the interreligious groups were using places of worship to voice their concerns to warn the government and others that they have a religious duty to protect the environment.
Carmelite Father Egidius Eko Aldilanto, executive secretary of the Indonesian bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, said people should fear the damage that has been caused to the environment and the dire consequences this causes.
“Environmental issues cannot be ignored; that time has passed and should be prioritised,” Father Aldilanto said on October 19.
This needs to be backed up by education, the priest said, adding that Pope Francis’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, can be a reference for everyone on protecting the environment.
“Ecological education in schools and instilling an ecological spirit to create awareness among youths to love the environment will help bring about change,” he said.
