Climate Change, Ecology, and Religion, a Narrative Summary
Across the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the growing scientific consensus about human-driven climate change and the accelerating loss of ecosystems have pushed religious communities to rethink longstanding theological commitments about nature, human responsibility, and the good life. For many faith traditions, this has meant translating ancient teachings — dominion and stewardship in the Abrahamic religions, the sacredness and interconnectedness of life in Dharmic and Indigenous traditions, the prophetic insistence on justice in many spiritual lineages, into a moral language that speaks directly to ecological crisis. The most visible example is the Catholic Church’s Laudato Si’ (2015), in which Pope Francis framed care for the environment as an “integral ecology” that binds concern for the poor to care for the earth, and made environmental stewardship a central moral issue for Catholics worldwide.
That theological reframing has not remained purely rhetorical. International institutions and faith-based coalitions now treat religion as an important partner for climate action: the United Nations Environment Programme’s “Faith for Earth” work highlights faith leaders’ capacity to mobilize communities and offer value-based perspectives on sustainability, while interfaith networks and national organizations (from Interfaith Power & Light in the U.S. to many local initiatives) have organized congregations to reduce emissions, lobby for policy change, and run community resilience programs. These faith-led efforts often emphasize practical steps, energy retrofits for houses of worship, divestment from fossil fuels, climate education in sermons and youth programs, and advocacy for climate justice, pairing spiritual motivation with concrete civic action.
Different religious traditions bring distinct theological resources that shape how they engage the environment. Many Christian groups deploy the language of “creation care” and stewardship (Genesis) to make a moral case for conservation and climate action; among Catholics this is amplified by papal teachings that link ecology to social justice. Muslim scholars and organizations issued an Islamic Declaration on Climate Change in 2015 urging Muslims to act as stewards of God’s creation; similar declarations and fatwas have framed environmental care as part of religious duty. Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Indigenous spiritualities often emphasize interdependence, nonviolence toward living beings, and sacredness of place, perspectives that both inspire conservation practices and offer alternative frameworks to the modern exploitative mindset. These cross-tradition conversations have generated a rich religious ecology of ideas and practices aimed at transforming both hearts and structures.
The religious turn toward ecology is also political and generational. In many countries faith communities are influential voting blocs and civic actors; religious leaders have lobbied legislatures, joined international climate talks, and shaped public debate. At the same time, attitudes within faith groups are far from uniform: surveys show clear variation by denomination, age, race, and political identification. For example, younger members of some faith traditions (including many younger evangelicals) are often more concerned about climate change than older generations, while in certain national contexts some conservative religious communities remain skeptical or politically aligned with climate denial. That unevenness creates both an opportunity, mobilizing faith-based constituencies for rapid cultural change, and a challenge, overcoming partisan and theological divides that can blunt collective action.
There are important tensions and ethical dilemmas at work. Some religious arguments for stewardship can be co-opted into superficial “green-washing” without addressing structural injustices; theological emphases on human dignity or eschatology (beliefs about the end times) sometimes dampen urgency for environmental policy among certain groups; and historic colonial dynamics mean that environmental initiatives risk flattening Indigenous knowledge rather than centering it. Conversely, faith traditions have also supplied distinctive strengths: moral language that reaches people less moved by secular science alone, dense networks of volunteer action, traditions of care and sacrifice that can sustain long-term commitments, and place-based knowledges, especially from Indigenous peoples, that offer practical, time-tested conservation strategies. Respectful partnerships that honor local spiritualities, reparative justice, and scientific knowledge together tend to be the most promising path forward.
On the ground, faith-based climate engagement ranges widely: from liturgical innovations (prayers and rituals for creation) and theological education (seminars and curricula on ecology) to policy advocacy (faith delegations at climate conferences, campaigning for carbon pricing and adaptation funding), from grassroots conservation (protecting sacred groves, community reforestation) to practical mitigation (solar arrays on mosques, temples, and churches). Where religious leaders explicitly link care for creation to protecting the poor and vulnerable, the result is often a broadened climate agenda that foregrounds adaptation, resilience, and climate justice rather than only emissions targets. This “integral” approach — joining spiritual formation, moral teaching, ecological science, and social policy, is now a recognizable strand in contemporary religious responses to climate change.
Finally, the relationship between religion and ecology is dynamic and still unfolding. New institutional initiatives, shifting demographics, and the increasing visibility of faith-founded climate campaigns mean religion will remain an important actor in public conversations about the environment. The long-term influence of this engagement will depend on whether religious communities can sustain theological reflection that resists shortcut solutions, build cross-cultural and interreligious alliances, amplify marginalized voices (especially Indigenous and Global South communities), and translate moral commitments into durable political and economic reforms. In short: religion often supplies the moral vocabulary and community muscle for environmental stewardship — but whether it becomes a decisive force for the deep systemic changes scientists say are needed will depend on how theological urgency, justice, and practical action are woven together in the coming decades.