March 28, 2024

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EcoSikh at Vatican Meeting on Climate ahead of UN Summit

Kaumimarg Bureau | October 07, 2021 02:26 PM
 
 
Vatican City: EcoSikh representing Sikh perspective joined a gathering of 40 religious leaders in the Vatican on the global climate crisis. Influential faith leaders from different parts of the world came together  in an effort to rally support for major measures to preserve the ecology in the upcoming UN climate conference. “Faith and Science: An Appeal for COP26” was hosted at the Vatican by Pope Francis.                                                                                                        Leaders representing Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism joined this initiative to build a strong momentum before the summit which is scheduled to take place in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31 to November 12.
 
The UN Climate Change conference, according to experts, is the last ray of hope as the earth faces an unprecedented ecological crisis. The faith leaders jointly appealed COP26 to commit ambitious targets in order to cut net carbon emissions. The appeal, which described climate change as a "grave threat", was handed to Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Britain's Alok Sharma, president of COP26 in Glasgow.
 
Dr. Rajwant Singh, President of EcoSikh, a global environmental NGO, represented the Sikh community at this event. While addressing the participants he said “The crisis of climate change is the shared concern of humanity. It would not spare anybody of its drastic impact based on one’s economic status, same is the true for nations. If one nation sinks, we all sink”.
 
He also sang a hymn written by Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism at the gathering. The words of the Gurbani reverberated the walls of the Vatican “Pavan Guru … “Water is the father, air is the teacher, and Earth is our common mother”. Dr. Singh added “Just as we don’t dishonour our mother, father, and teacher – why would we dishonour these gifts from our creator?” 
 
Many participants appreciated the change EcoSikh is creating by generating awareness at the grassroot level and planting ‘sacred forests’. It has planted 365 Forests in India and other parts of the world. 
 
Speaking at his event Pope Francis said "COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations, " 
 
Alok Sharma also spoke about the Hindu perspective that humans are part of nature. Satish Kumar from the UK represented the Jain viewpoint. Many delegates could not join due to COVID restrictions. 
 
For over a decade, EcoSikh has been working on environmental issues in Punjab, India, and North America. It has represented Sikh community on various national and international platforms on climate change and sustainable development. It has been invited by the White House, United Nations and is working with the World Economic Forum. 

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