EXC 2060 B3-31 - Religion as a Resource in European and International Climate Governance

Increasingly, faith-based actors (FBA) of different faiths are pursuing ambitious goals in international climate policy. They directly and indirectly participate individually or jointly in discourses or practical engagement. Also, religious references are increasingly made by FBAs or other actors in climate policy discourse. Against this background, the project examines if and under which circumstances religion does serve as a resource for agreement in climate policy? Therefore, of interest are religious comprehensions of nature, the relationship between religion and politics and the potential for cooperation and agreement in climate policy practice: To what extent can common values and norms be identified between faith-based actors, but also between them and other civil society or administrative actors, in the context of the European climate policy discourse and the engagement of FBAs? Are these values and norms used as a basis for cooperation, and if so, under what conditions? Or are there normative conflicts that hinder or even prevent cooperation and agreement? Using the methodology of text mining, the project will analyze relevant, publicly accessible documents on climate policy conversations and negotiations in the period 2015-2021 in pursuit of its objectives as well as expert interviews.