Put It Out: Islamic Relief’s Climate Policy 2025

INTRODUCTION

This Climate Policy sets out again Islamic Relief’s long-held positions regarding the climate emergency. We reiterate the core positions we set out in the Climate Policy Brief published in 2022:

We support every ethical action designed to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. These include ending exploration, production and use of coal, oil and gas, and replacing them with renewable sources of energy.

We demand that the necessary transformations to society and economy are just and equitable and respect human rights and dignity.

We require that the means, capacity and technical support to adapt to climate breakdown is made available to all.

We expect proper provision to be made to address Loss and Damage due to climate breakdown.

We recognise the overwhelming ethical and moral responsibility of those who have benefitted from the activities that have led to climate breakdown to provide for adaptation and, where this is not possible, compensation for Loss and Damage incurred.

We hold that climate action is both compatible and necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS).

In reaffirming these points of principle, this new Climate Policy 2025 updates aspects of the scientific background for the positions we have taken, especially in the light of the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Assessment Report of 2022-23.

This document also highlights the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on countries’ obligations concerning climate breakdown, the objectives that the United Nations’ Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) identified in 2023, and points of intersection with Islamic Relief’s 202333 Global Strategy.

Our policy concludes with two extensive further sections of new material. One captures ‘Voices from the frontline’, based on a survey of Islamic Relief’s 24 country offices aimed at gauging their perspective and priorities through the lens of the lived experience and challenges faced by the grassroots communities they serve.

The other focuses on the importance of locally led adaptation (LLA) – an approach that Islamic Relief believes should be at the heart of climate action if we are to ensure that it is inclusive, effective and socially equitable for the communities most profoundly affected by the climate emergency.

Purpose

This climate policy has three purposes:

• to position Islamic Relief on the policies and legislation needed to facilitate the goals set out in the Islamic Relief Global Strategy

• to outline Islamic Relief’s positions on matters related to the climate emergency which affect the activities of the organisation and the lives of the people and communities we serve

• to set out Islamic Relief’s positions on what can be done by individuals, families, communities, wider society, nations, regions and the global community to limit global heating and adapt to its effects.