Engaging faith for a sustainable urban future

Effectively addressing climate change and associated environmental challenges is now chiefly about action, implementation and social change. Global environmental research and policy frameworks have begun to emphasise 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 outlines literature on the intersection of and climate change in the context of cities, before expanding on key themes 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 offered as a framework for guiding 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 mobilising shared values.