Religion and Environmental Justice: The Role of Theology in Addressing Climate-Induced Poverty

Abstract

Climate change impacts vulnerable people more than others increasing poverty, food insecurity, displacement, and social instability. The convergence of religion and environmental justice has become the focus of more and more scholarly efforts as the environmental degradation broadens global inequalities. This article discusses the importance of theology in solving the issue of poverty as a result of climate by looking at how religious ethics, eco-theology, and liberationist viewpoints can support ecological responsibility as a moral obligation. The study uses interdisciplinary environmental justice and religious studies to examine how theological terms of stewardship, creation care, human dignity, and solidarity with the poor offer normative principles on the use of interdependent action on an international level. It claims that theology does not only criticize structural injustice systems which contribute to climate vulnerability but also organizes faith communities into advocating, policy-seeking, and grassroots resiliency practice. This article reveals that, by putting climate-induced poverty in a wider context of global justice, religious practices can be the transformative moral agent in dealing with an ecological degradation. The results indicate that an inclusion of theological ethics in climate policy discussion empower both moral responsibility and social action in line with environmental injustice. Finally, the paper puts forward a justice-based theological system that could be used to inform international collaboration in alleviating climate-related affliction of the most vulnerable populations on earth.