This year, abnormal temperatures are impacting regions across the globe at a pace surpassing even last year, which was officially recorded as the hottest in history. Unprecedented torrential rains and floods are occurring with increasing frequency, causing catastrophic damage on a previously unimaginable scale.

As the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, reaches a record high, all of the world’s reference glaciers continue to melt and the global mean sea level rose to a record high for the thirteenth consecutive year. In addition, the unprecedented increase in massive wildfires contributed to a surge in primary forest loss worldwide, pushing the total area lost to an all-time high. 

It has been observed that “the future is no longer what it used to be.” 

In the past, even as societies underwent various changes, the future was still perceived as something relatively foreseeable. However, we now see crises surfacing everywhere—in terms of both rising temperatures and natural disasters—such that people in many countries are feeling a stark and undeniable shift, a sense that we have entered a radically different dimension from anything we have previously known. As uncertainty about the future intensifies, there is deepening concern that we are approaching a critical threshold regarding the climate crisis in two key areas.

The first pertains to the actual rise in average global temperatures. The goal set by the Paris Agreement of limiting the average global temperature increase to within 1.5 degrees Celsius is now in serious jeopardy. The impacts of the climate crisis have already caused severe damage to people’s homes and livelihoods, particularly in island nations in the Pacific and elsewhere, and the number of those affected continues to rise. Warming significantly beyond the 1.5-degree limit will inevitably lead to even more serious harm to the lives, dignity and livelihoods of people around the world.

The second area of concern is the growing risk that international solidarity, essential for addressing our shared challenges, is weakening. In recent years, reaching consensus among developed and developing nations has become increasingly difficult, and measures such as the raising of tariffs have contributed to fears about the future of the global economy. As a result, cooperation aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions now faces serious obstacles.

Amid escalating uncertainty and instability, a sense of resignation may begin to take hold among the world’s people―that perhaps resolving the climate crisis is beyond our capacity. If such despair spreads, it will not only undermine momentum for scaling up climate action but also threaten the commitment to existing efforts.

Nevertheless, there are still many areas in which each and every one of us in civil society can raise our voices and take action to promote broader transformation. For example, renewable energy, development of which was at one time thought impractical for many countries, is now projected by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to overtake coal as the world’s largest source of electricity in 2026. 

Brazil, the host of COP30, was also the venue of the Earth Summit in 1992, where the UNFCCC and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) were first opened for signature. These landmark agreements, along with the international cooperation seen in recent years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, serve as powerful reminders that human beings inherently possess the capacity to unite across national borders and pursue a shared path forward. Even in the face of unprecedented crises, we are capable of upholding a spirit of mutual solidarity, joining hands to protect one another’s lives and dignity and refusing to give in to despair.

Guided by this conviction, the SGI has worked to raise public awareness of the climate crisis and other environmental issues. As part of these efforts, we have held the exhibition "Seeds of Hope & Action: Making the SDGs a Reality," a joint initiative of the SGI and the Earth Charter International highlighting pathways to sustainable living, in ten languages across twenty-four countries and territories. In addition, the Soka Gakkai has worked with the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) since 2021 to support reforestation efforts in West Africa. These initiatives are part of our broader commitment to building a sustainable global society.

On this occasion, we would like to offer two proposals, one focused on civil society and the other on youth, aimed at strengthening international solidarity to help catalyze progress in addressing the climate crisis, drawing upon the experience we have gained through our ongoing efforts. 

Strengthening Solidarity Among Civil Society

The first proposal focuses on the mobilization of civil society. To confront the climate crisis, including through efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, national-level measures alone are not sufficient. What is urgently needed is to unite the will of people everywhere in pursuit of a future of hope and security. Civil society initiatives offer a foundation for action rooted in the unwavering determination to resolve this crisis. 

Religious communities and their diverse faith traditions can play a vital role in this effort. At an event organized by the Interfaith Liaison Committee (ILC) to the UNFCCC during COP29 in Azerbaijan in November 2024, an SGI representative emphasized the following point: With more than 80 percent of the world’s population adhering to some form of religious belief or creed, faith communities are uniquely positioned to inspire the behavioral transformation essential for addressing the climate crisis.

As the SGI continues to engage with the issue of climate change in collaboration with other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), particular emphasis is placed on three key areas:

1. Disseminating accurate information about climate change;
2. Elevating the voices of those in vulnerable situations—including individuals directly experiencing the impacts of climate change—and ensuring their inclusion in dialogue and decision-making spaces; and
3. Encouraging, as people of faith, a perspective grounded in humanity and the lived realities of ordinary people as a guiding principle in climate-related discussions.

Of these, the second and third areas reference the approach of SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, who during his lifetime consistently engaged in dialogue and developed concrete proposals to address the shared issues facing humanity, including climate change. 

In his 2020 Peace Proposal, President Ikeda placed utmost emphasis on never leaving behind those struggling in difficult circumstances. In this, he made specific reference to the plight of people in island nations facing such crises as land submersion caused by rising sea levels. He also shared the efforts of the Toda Peace Institute, which he founded in 1996, noting that it has been conducting research on the impacts of climate change on Pacific Island countries since 2018. He cautioned: "Even if these people move to another island and are able to achieve material security, they will remain deprived of what the report describes as the 'ontological security' they experienced living on their own island. The project concludes that attentiveness to this kind of irreparable pain must be part of any effort to tackle climate change."

He further urged: "When discussing the impacts of climate change, there is a tendency to focus on the scale of economic loss or other quantifiable indicators. But I think it is important that we attend to the actual suffering of the many individuals that such macroeconomic indices might obscure, and make this central to our efforts to come together in search of solutions."

According to World Bank projections, if the rise in global temperatures continues at the current pace, the number of climate refugees forced to leave their familiar environments could exceed 200 million worldwide by 2050. In this context, President Ikeda’s call resonates with even greater urgency and significance today. 

The UN and Brazil, as the host of the upcoming COP30, have called for future climate action to be shaped not only by policy and scientific analysis but also by ethical commitment and inclusivity. In line with this, the Global Ethical Stocktake (GES) was developed as a framework for dialogue that went beyond numerical targets such as greenhouse gas reduction and instead urged a fundamental reexamination of what we, as human beings, are doing to the Earth’s environment from an ethical dimension. It has sought to awaken a sense of collective will, transcending national boundaries, and to inspire humanity to choose new ways of living and build a world with strong ethical foundations. At the heart of these efforts lies the understanding that without a genuine transformation in humanity’s behaviors and priorities, even the most advanced technological solutions cannot truly demonstrate their full effectiveness.

As a first step in this direction, the SGI has expressed its support, as a faith-based organization (FBO), for the implementation of the GES. The SGI contributed actively to the GES process, particularly through the initiative of youth, and has recently reported outcomes to the Presidency of COP30. 

We hope to help strengthen mutual solidarity among diverse faith traditions to enable such vital initiatives to gain traction as a means of underpinning concrete actions, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Now more than ever, all religious traditions must serve as wellsprings of human conscience, guiding individuals to take action in response to the global challenges we face. Moreover, they are called on to play a more active role in inspiring the resilience of the human spirit—a spirit that refuses to give in, no matter how great the adversity, and rises to confront even the most daunting trials. 

From this standpoint, the SGI proposes that further opportunities be created at the COP conferences for religious organizations and FBOs to gather, share best practices, learn from one another and work together to develop paths toward confronting the climate crisis and building a sustainable global society.

Mainstreaming Youth Engagement

The second of the proposals the SGI would like to make on this occasion is to establish a permanent youth council within the UNFCCC Secretariat as a means of strengthening institutional frameworks. This would be a body led by young people to explore and develop new measures and implementation strategies aimed at meeting the current challenges, and present these ideas at the annual COP sessions.

In recent years, youth have been raising their voices, urgently calling for stronger climate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sharing ideas and initiatives in their respective countries and communities. Underlying these actions is a deep and unwavering determination to safeguard the foundations not only for their own survival but also for those yet to be born. At the core lies a powerful desire to shape a hopeful future with their own hands.

Because the decisions made by the international community now will have the greatest impact on today’s youth and future generations, demands for their inclusion in decision-making processes have grown stronger. This is essential from the perspective of achieving climate justice.

Against this backdrop, in 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted a historic resolution recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This was the first time the UN General Assembly formally acknowledged this right. Notably, the resolution also referred to future generations as the necessary beneficiaries of this right.

Over the years, the SGI has emphasized the importance of integrating a human rights perspective into climate action. The venues where we have done this include the UN Human Rights Council and the annual COP conferences, as well as, for example, a side event during the sixth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) held in Kenya in 2024. The SGI is also part of the Global Call initiative for universal recognition of access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right. 

In July of this year, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a groundbreaking advisory opinion declaring that states have an obligation to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions. The court affirmed that fulfilling this obligation requires states to exercise due diligence and to cooperate with one another in taking effective action.

It was youth who played a catalytic role in this historic process. Inspired by the advocacy of the youth-led Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC), the state of Vanuatu took the initiative that led to the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution in March 2023 requesting the ICJ’s advisory opinion, thereby setting the judicial process in motion.

The passion and vitality of youth needs to be embedded within the international framework for addressing the climate crisis, enabling them to drive powerful waves of transformation.

“The future is no longer what it used to be.” This was the cautionary observation bequeathed to humankind of the twenty-first century by Dr. Aurelio Peccei, cofounder and first president of the Club of Rome. Dr. Peccei, however, did not mean these words solely as a warning about the crises we would face. Rather, he believed that if the future has indeed diverged so sharply from how it was once understood, then conventional methods and systems would no longer suffice to address the challenges ahead. Implicit in his words was the conviction that the leadership driving effective solutions must be entrusted to the younger generations.

In his 2020 Peace Proposal, which was issued four months after the landmark UN Youth Climate Summit, President Ikeda reflected on his and Dr. Peccei’s shared belief in the boundless potential of youth, as expressed in their dialogue Before It Is Too Late (1984):

"Unlike such issues as pollution and resource depletion, which were points of concern during the period surrounding the publication of “The Limits to Growth” and whose causes can, for the most part, be disaggregated, the factors causing climate change are integrated into all areas of our daily life and economic activity, making it that much harder to find solutions. . . . 

"Precisely because it is so complex and requires a multifaceted approach, we can view the challenge of climate change as presenting a remarkable diversity of opportunities for human beings to give expression to their limitless potential."

Even before this proposal, President Ikeda consistently emphasized the crucial importance of actively incorporating the voices of youth in the quest for solutions to global challenges. In a 2006 proposal for UN reform, for example, he called for the establishment of a specialized agency dedicated to engaging the world’s young people, or a department of youth within the UN administration. Aligning with this proposal, the UN Youth Office was established within the UN Secretariat in December 2023. This office aims to energize and expand youth engagement with, and influence within, the UN system.

This expansion of youth involvement needs to be a top priority for international frameworks addressing the climate crisis. In this regard, Mary Robinson, a strong advocate for climate justice and intergenerational dialogue and the former Chair of The Elders―a group of former heads of state and government, human rights advocates and other statespersons―together with Felipe Paullier, head of the UN Youth Office, made the following appeal in January 2025:

"Our complex global challenges demand the moral strength to not only address current problems but also long-term risks and opportunities. This leadership is not inherently tied to any single generation but is strengthened when decision-making includes diverse perspectives, including those of youth. Engaging young people as equal partners enriches the decision-making process, embedding fresh ideas and future-oriented thinking into solutions that benefit both present and future generations."

In line with such efforts, the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai has been actively engaged in the international initiative Youth4Climate (Y4C), co-led by the Italian government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This initiative empowers young climate leaders and youth-led organizations to develop and implement innovative, impactful solutions to climate change. To date, Y4C has provided financial support to one hundred youth-led projects across fifty-two countries.

In March 2024, SGI youth in Japan worked with other civil society groups to organize the Future Action Festival at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo, an event calling for immediate action on the climate crisis and the abolition of nuclear weapons. The voices of some 120,000 people, collected through a survey conducted in the lead-up to the event, served as the basis for a joint statement that has since been used in ongoing consciousness-raising activities. In September 2024, SGI representatives participated in the Summit of the Future held at UN Headquarters, where they co-hosted side events that shared with the Summit the perspectives of youth.

We are firmly convinced that promoting such initiatives that mainstream youth engagement within the context of ever-expanding civil society activism, together with the establishment of a permanent youth council within the Secretariat of the UNFCCC, will serve as a powerful harbinger of genuine change. Now is the time to create spaces and opportunities for young people to fully unleash their potential and play the kind of roles of which they are capable. 

Turning a blind eye to the grave realities unfolding before us will not stop the accelerating crisis. Based on the two pillars proposed above—global grassroots mobilization and building stronger institutions in which youth and their contributions are mainstreamed—let us work together to meet this epochal challenge: to protect not only the lives, dignity and livelihoods of those living on this planet today but also those of future generations.

The SGI Global Perspectives Committee issues statements suggesting approaches for the resolution of pressing global challenges, building upon ideas advocated by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda in his peace proposals. The committee includes SGI leaders engaged in peace activities in various countries in Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, North America and Latin America.