Engaging faith for a sustainable urban future

Ives, Christopher D.; Baker, Christopher

Abstract

Global environmental research and policy frameworks have begun to emphasize the importance of culture and multi-sector partnerships for urban sustainability governance. However, there has been little explicit attention paid to religion and belief as ubiquitous urban socio-cultural phenomena. This article reviews literature on the intersection of religion and climate change in the context of cities. Religious responses to climate change are presented as a typology spanning physicalities, practices, ‘prophetic’ imagination and policy arenas. Key themes are then intersected with areas of focal activity presented in the most recent IPCC reports. Religion is shown to offer both opportunities and barriers for effective urban climate adaptation and mitigation. A new model of religious-civic partnership is then developed as a framework for guiding urban climate policy implementation. This model presents religion as vital to shaping the ‘value landscape’ of cities and calls for collaborative action based on identifying, enriching and mobilizing shared values. As cities become increasingly more populous, heterogeneous, globally teleconnected and exposed to climate impacts, there is an urgent need for research and policy that effectively engages with the historic and evolving presence and impact of religion within urban environments.

Citation

Ives, C. D., & Baker, C. (2024). Engaging faith for a sustainable urban future. Global Sustainability, 7, Article e45. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.32

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 8, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 21, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 22, 2024
• Journal: Global Sustainability
• Print ISSN: 2059-4798
• Electronic ISSN: 2059-4798
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Article Number: e45
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.32
• Keywords: climate change; climate adaptation; climate mitigation; politics and governance; social values; urban systems
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/40705693
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/engaging-faith-for-a-sustainable-urban-future/10FD4D82549EE74F026A4C13A693F90B
• Additional Information: Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press; License: This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.; Free to read: This content has been made available to all.