By Mike Hulme[1] and Arthur C Petersen[2]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in the early stages of establishing its Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).  These preparations include holding a workshop early in 2026 on ‘engaging diverse knowledge systems’, with the intention “to consider what systems of knowledge — including scientific, Indigenous Knowledge systems, local knowledge systems — can be accessed and assessed by the IPCC within the framework of existing principles and procedures.”[i]  This ambition reflects the Panel’s growing recognition that a full assessment of what is known about climate change and its consequences must extend beyond scientific and other forms of academic knowledge.  We wish to draw attention to the relevance for climate change of one domain of knowledge to which the IPCC has long been blind, namely religious knowledge and religious knowledge holders.

Previous IPCC assessment reports have largely failed to include religious knowledge in their assessments of climate change (see Box).  None of the IPCC Assessments’ various Summaries for Policymakers (SPMs) has made any mention of religion or spirituality and, with just one exception—a single mention in the AR3 Synthesis Report, neither have any of the IPCC’s five Synthesis Reports.  This is in marked contrast to the growing salience given to Indigenous knowledge.  In AR6 WG2, the SPM had 18 mentions of Indigenous (knowledge), its Technical Summary had 150 mentions, and the full WG2 report contained several hundred mentions.  Although AR6 gave slightly more visibility to religious knowledge than previous Reports, this was from a very low baseline and was in stark contrast to the widespread inclusion of Indigenous knowledge.  

Box: How Previous IPCC Reports Treated Religions and Religious Knowledge[ii]

Assessment Report-2 (AR2, 1996) (2,000 pages).  There was just one reference to religion (in Working Group 2; WG2), pointing out how religious philosophies were relevant for considerations of equity; WG3 had a handful of isolated references to “spiritual values”.

AR3, 2001 (2,700 pages).  WG2 had one small sub-section titled “the cultural and religious importance of animals” (p.277), but no other mention of religion or spirituality; WG3 had two isolated mentions of religion (in relation to institutions) and two mentions of spirituality (one in the context of sense of self).  In the entire AR3 index, there was just one sub-entry for religion, ‘Birds: the religious importance of’.

AR4, 2007 (2,900 pages).  WG2 had two mentions of religion and six mentions of spirituality, mostly in relation to cultural services; WG3 had one mention of ‘faith’, with respect to a discussion of metaphysics and belief systems.  In the entire AR4 index there was no entry related to religion, spirituality or faith.

AR5, 2013-14 (4,800 pages).  WG2 had a few (n=13) isolated mentions of religion, mostly in relation to cultural services, ethnic tensions, and intersectionality; WG3 had three mentions of religion—with respect to ecosystem services—and one mention of spirituality.  In the AR5 index there again was no entry related to religion, spirituality or faith. 

AR6, 2021-22 (7,500 pages, c.5 million words).  WG2 had a few more mentions (n=27) of religion than in AR5, usually in relation to sacred values, adaptive capacity, and human well-being, but there was no sustained or systematic treatment of religion.  WG3 had eight mentions of religion, but just one substantive but short paragraph (p.557) which drew attention to the motivational potential of religion for climate mitigation.  This single WG3 paragraph was the only index entry for either religion or spirituality in AR6 in an aggregated index consisting of 150 pages. 

In our book which assessed social scientific knowledge about the IPCC as a knowledge-making institution we were also silent on the question of religious knowledge.[iii]  And this is true of many other secular interventions.  For example, in Naomi Klein’s best-selling book ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate’, she laments the lack of moral energy within the climate movement whilst being entirely silent on the role of religions in shaping and motivating human behaviour.[iv]  And yet it is not the case that there is any lack of literature on the subject. 

This marginalizing of religious knowledge, faith and spirituality in assessments of climate change is unfortunate.  Over 80 per cent of the world’s population self-identify with one or other of the major religious faith traditions; religious knowledge and practice is therefore important for understanding the human dimensions of climate change knowledge, behaviour and policy.  Religion shapes many peoples’ cosmologies, knowledge systems, beliefs, attitudes, motivations, values and behaviour, and is therefore often foundational for how they make sense of a changing climate.[v]  Including religions and religious knowledge in IPCC assessments also has instrumental value for policymakers when thinking about responses to climate change.  Major world religions can mobilise broad audiences and social movements.  Many of them possess significant institutional, political and economic resources.  And religious communities cultivate social capital and support networks which can engender change, whether in adapting to climatic hazards or promoting mitigation actions.[vi]  The 2015 Papal Encyclical, ‘Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home’, is a good demonstration of both the conceptual and instrumental value of religious knowledge, and yet apart from one inconsequential citation in the WG3 Report (p.165) it is never discussed by the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report.[vii]

On the publication of Fifth Assessment Synthesis Report, the IPCC Chair—Rajendra Pachauri—communicated to the world through a press release that “All we need is the will to change, which we trust will be motivated by knowledge and an understanding of the science of climate change.”[viii]  In our view, the “will to change” is much more likely to be motivated through engaging with people’s religious beliefs, values, practices and behaviours than through better understanding of climate science.  The upcoming Seventh Assessment Report of the IPCC has an opportunity to be better attuned to the world’s religious faiths as holders of knowledge about human meaning, ethics and behaviour, and to incorporate such knowledge explicitly in its assessments.  Religious knowledge about a changing climate should not be treated simply as a placeholder for ‘cultural values’ and nor should it be seen as synonymous with Indigenous knowledge.

26 July 2025

[1] Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK

[2] Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, University College London, UK

[i] https://www.ipcc.ch/event/ipcc-workshop-on-engaging-diverse-knowledge-systems-and-ipcc-workshop-on-methods-of-assessment/

[ii] Sourced from all IPCC assessment reports, https://www.ipcc.ch/

[iii] De Pryck, K. & Hulme, M. (eds.) A Critical Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (CUP, 2022).

[iv] Klein, N. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate Simon & Schuster., 2014).

[v] Veldman, R.G. et al. (eds.) How the World’s Religions are Responding to Climate Change: Social Scientific Investigations (Routledge, 2013).

[vi] Berry, E. (ed.) Climate Politics and the Power of Religion (Indiana University Press, 2022).

[vii] Pope Francis Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality.  On Care For Our Common Home (Melville House Publishing, 2015).

[viii] IPCC Press Release, 2 November 2014. https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/ar5/prpc_syr/11022014_syr_copenhagen.pdf