Al Haqeeqa
By Muslim Mirror
On October 27, the ‘Malaibar Declaration for Climate Action’ held by the League of Islamic Universities based in Cairo and Jamia Markaz Kozhikode in Markaz Knowledge City concluded.
Members including 200 universities from 60 countries, were present at Jamia Markaz, an Islamic university in Kozhikode, Kerala, for the International Climate Action Summit which was held between October 17-20.
Dr. Osama Al-Abed, secretary general of the league, opened the event by urging global stakeholders to use fresh approaches to combat climate change because the globe is currently “facing challenges that are structurally different from the past.”
As a consequence of talks on many facets of the main issue, Dr. Al Abdu and Muhammed Abdul Hakim Azhari, the rector of Jamia Markaz, jointly made the following declaration: The Partnership of University Leadership in Mitigating the Climate Change.
The declaration includes a request for environmental science to be taught in member universities’ curricula, for financial and human resources to be set aside for research into tackling climate challenges, as well as for new technology to be developed for the same.
“We thought that the real community who has to work on climate change is students. In every country, if the universities go for some course on climate then the future generation would be working on climate change,” Jamia Markaz rector Dr. Abdul Hakeem Al-Kandi told reporters.
“Students, who are the future leaders, when they are getting aware of climate change, (they) will impact the whole world.” he said.
Al-Kandi stated that the league would create an environmental studies centre in Calicut, India.
The goal of the university league’s activity, according to environmentalist and Markaz Law College principal Dr. C. Abdul Samad, who organised the summit, was to engage community members in various societies and make them stakeholders in saving the environment.
“Introducing environmental science courses in universities is important as the young leaders need to be educated to think about nature and climate change, and its impact,” he said.
“It is the new generation that can preserve the diversity of nature and respect the environment. The whole idea is to save the planet for the future,” he further stated.
At the summit, 63 research papers on diverse facets of the main issue were presented. A hundred trees were planted on the Knowledge City Campus by university leaders as part of Jamia Markaz’s afforestation programme and in support of the summit.
