Glasgow Central Mosque solarised in major new global climate initiative launched at COP26

Islamic Relief and Greenpeace MENA as part of the Ummah for Earth Alliance expect greening effort to spark “domino effect” among religious communities across the world.

The largest mosque in Scotland began to be solarised today in order to drive down its carbon emissions and encourage buildings of worship to step up their fight against climate change. 

The initiative, funded by aid organisation Islamic Relief and announced during the COP26 climate conference, will see 130 solar panels installed with the aim of cutting out an estimated 18,000kg per year of CO2 emissions. 

In recognition of these efforts, the Glasgow Central Mosque has been selected as part of a major Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa’s Green Mosques initiative, highlighting the huge potential that solarising major mosques around the world can have in cutting back greenhouse gas emissions and setting an example for other communities. 

A detailed report with analysis calculating the savings to be made by solarising key sites, such as the Al Nabawi mosque in Medina, Al Haram Mosque in Makkah and Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, will be released by Greenpeace MENA as part of the organisation’s activities at COP26. 

Tufail Hussein, Director of Islamic Relief UK, said: 

“The solarisation effort of this iconic building – located right across the river from where world leaders are meeting at COP26 – must encourage actions on a global scale. We hope it sparks a domino effect for a wide variety of places of worship to cut their emissions and act as beacons in the fight against climate change. 

“Climate change is already wreaking havoc. Our teams are seeing first-hand the human misery it is causing on a mass scale – millions of people are being displaced, millions more are on the brink of famine as harvests fail. With 80 per cent of the world adhering to a faith, it is critical that faith leaders take a stand against the pillaging of our planet.”