Muslim religious leaders’ views of climate change: An international survey

Religious leaders have unique potential to motivate individuals and governments to address climate change. Nevertheless, there is currently a lack of systematic information on religious leaders' views of climate change and their willingness to raise awareness and encourage climate mitigation behaviors. We present results from an exploratory global survey of Muslim religious leaders (N = 150 from 29 countries; e.g., imams, religious teachers, students of religious seminaries). Nearly all respondents agreed that the climate is changing (98.6%), and about half agreed that climate change is mainly or entirely caused by humans (48.7%). Nearly half (48.0%) agreed that climate change is already substantially harming people. Most respondents indicated that Muslim religious leaders and the Muslim religious community should do more to address climate change, and that Islam offers a set of values and principles that motivate environmental protection and climate action. Respondents reported that they sometimes addressed climate change and other environmental topics in their religious work. They reported high willingness to support government spending on technologies that curb emissions and the effects of climate change; the implementation of new technologies to promote greener production and consumption; and reductions in consumption. There was lower willingness to promote dietary changes and reduced meat consumption; vegetarianism; or limits on population growth and family size. These preliminary findings suggest that, although many respondents are not regularly addressing climate change in their religious work, Muslim religious leaders may have substantial potential to promote climate change awareness and action.