Taoism -- "The Way" for Climate Action in China?

By Olav Kjorven, Assistant Secretary General and Director of Development Policy at the UN Development Program

Something unprecedented happened in China in late October. It may not have been as glitzy spectacular as the Olympics in Beijing over the summer. It did not attract heads of state or world celebrities. But it possibly leave a more lasting imprint on the future of China and indeed the world.

Taoist masters from all over China gathered near the ancient capital of Nanjing to agree on a seven-year plan for climate change action. Anybody with minimal knowledge of China will immediately understand that this is more than a curiosity. A national religious conference of any kind in this formally communist society demands some attention. But the fact that it was the ancient, homegrown Taoist tradition that gathered their most revered teachers to discuss what climate change means for them and their country is more than exotic, whether one looks at it from a religious, an environmental or a political perspective.