A World-Embracing Vision for a Sustainable Future

If you could pick the future you’d like to see for humanity, what would it look like — and what will it take for all humanity to make our hope for a peaceful and sustainable future come true?

This month, representatives of governments and civil society will gather in New York City for the Summit of the Future — and they’ll discuss and try to answer big questions like these. 

Alongside this Summit, the Baha’i-inspired International Environment Forum (IEF) plans to contribute to the discourse with its online conference. So, what will the Summit of the Future and the IEF conference focus on?

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The Summit of the Future, proposed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “aims to forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like, and what we can do today to secure it.” According to the UN, the Summit:

… is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enhance cooperation on critical challenges and address gaps in global governance. It will reaffirm existing commitments, including to the Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Charter, and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system better positioned to impact people’s lives positively.

This global call for a gathering of the world’s leaders to effectively address the numerous social and environmental problems facing humanity recalls the message of world unity from Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, who wrote this powerful prophecy when a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire about 140 years ago:

The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquility of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves.

While the Summit of the Future may not reach the high standards set by Baha’u’llah, it could become a stepping stone in that direction.

Amidst nationalism and complacency with obsolete and harmful economic and governance systems, sharing Baha’i principles in these international efforts can help provide spiritual motivation and a vision of a positive future. Baha’u’llah encouraged humanity to: “Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self.” He also urged us to: “Take pride not in love for yourselves but in love for your fellow-creatures. Glory not in love for your country, but in love for all mankind.”

Baha’is believe that these principles are essential for the spiritual development of each individual, while they also form the foundation for social transformation toward a just, peaceful global order. The Baha’i teachings say: “The Law must reign, and not the individual; thus will the world become a place of beauty and true brotherhood will be realized. Having attained solidarity, men will have found truth.”

If people have attained solidarity, they’ve learned to support each other and act in favor of the well-being of all, of the common good. Then, the Baha’i teachings assert, they will be able to create and adhere to just laws and regulations on a global scale — so necessary to tackle the planetary crises of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution, and our many worldwide social problems.

The distinguishing feature of the Baha’i Faith is the oneness of humankind, and that human solidarity must embrace all of us. This principle has direct practical applications. Just imagine what could happen when world leaders put the following advice of Baha’u’llah into practice:

O ye the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully. 

Profound solidarity toward all of humankind builds the foundation of global governance. That topic will serve as the subject of one of four events at the upcoming conference of the International Environment Forum (IEF): Developing a vision for global collaboration. This panel discussion will revolve around transforming global governance into a system that enables genuine worldwide cooperation for human well-being and environmental sustainability.

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Such solidarity also needs to guide local action for environmental sustainability. This will be addressed in another panel discussion at the IEF conference: Building Futures in Communities. Panelists will reflect on Baha’i-inspired approaches to community building based on experiences with a reforestation project in Iceland, community gardening in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, coral reef rescue in Samoa, agricultural and environmental education in Colombia, and relief work following recent flooding in Brazil.

The overall IEF conference theme is A World-Embracing Vision for a Sustainable Future. The four online conference events will take place from September 14 – 28.

You are invited to virtually attend this important conference and listen to the voices of youth, of leaders of thought, and of community and sustainability builders from around the world. Everyone is welcome to participate in the conference discussions. For more information and to register for one or more free events, please visit the conference webpage: https://iefworld.org/conf28.