Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim majority country—and its tenth-largest greenhouse gas emitter. It’s also home to massive coal reserves and enormous supplies of nickel, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. Wealthy interests are pressuring the government to continue the destructive mining practices that have devastated local communities. Faith communities have a vital role to play.
GreenFaith’s Indonesian team, led by Hening Parlan, has relationships with grassroots and high-level leaders in the country’s six recognized religions: Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian. Hening has built a formidable base, conducting over 200 public actions with grassroots faith communities over the past two years.
Building on this, Hening has now begun pressing the country’s highest-level Muslim leaders to release a fatwa, an authoritative religious ruling, calling for a rapid coal phaseout. A declaration like this would send shockwaves across Indonesia and a strong signal to other Muslim-majority, oil-producing countries.
Hening has stood strong in the face of considerable resistance, a courageous stance that’s characteristic of our GreenFaith team. Great job, Hening!
Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan embraced a return to coal as a major energy source—the only developed country to double down on the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Coal still provides more of Japan’s electricity than any other source. The government and powerful industry leaders are prolonging the country’s reliance on a fuel that needs to be phased out ASAP.
GreenFaith Japan, led by Yoshiro Sada, worked with our Executive Director, Rev. Fletcher Harper, to build relationships with influential religious organizations across the country. We published educational briefings for Japanese people of faith, explaining the climate issue with support from Shinto and Buddhist teachings.
Then, in March, our Global Organizing Director Meryne Warah, based in Kenya, and GreenFaith Indonesia Director, Hening Parlan, traveled to Tokyo for meetings with representatives of major Japanese political parties, women’s religious groups and high-level faith leaders. They described how Japanese funds are deepening Indonesia’s reliance on coal and called for Japan’s banks to end their support for the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
Japanese religious leaders stood alongside us in these meetings. They told us that pressure from outside Japan is essential to creating change domestically.
Just weeks after our visit, a major Japanese bank withdrew from EACOP—a major victory! Up-and-coming legislators in two major parties told us that they would advocate for stronger climate policies. In 2024, we’ll be re-doubling our efforts with Japanese religious organizations to turn the country from a climate laggard to a leader.
We hope you enjoy these stories, and look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow!
In faith and solidarity,
Rose and the GreenFaith Digital Team
Building a Worldwide, Multi-faith Climate and Environmental Movement.
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