In a message to participants of the COP22 Climate Change meeting taking place in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, the Pope urged all to act in a manner as free as possible from political and economic pressures, setting aside particular interests and behaviour.
“Continual political support and encouragement” are needed in order to implement the climate agreement reached in Paris last December (COP21), in the interests of the world’s poorest and future generations. It is our “responsibility to act without delay, in a manner as free as possible from political and economic pressures, setting aside particular interests and behaviour”. The Pope wrote this in the message he sent to participants of the COP22 Climate Change meeting taking place in the Moroccan city of Marrakech. The meeting runs from 7 to 18 November. Francis had supported the agreement signed in the French capital, from the moment he published his “Laudato Si’” encyclical.
In light of the election of new US president, Donald Trump - who during his election campaign had talked about the need to “cancel” the Paris agreement -, the US special envoy on climate change, Jonathan Pershing, said: “Heads of state can and will change but I am confident that we can and we will sustain a durable international effort to counter climate change.”
In the message he addressed to the 22nd session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Agreement on Climate Change, signed by the Pope on 10 November and published today by the Vatican, Francis stresses that the adoption of the Paris agreement “represents the important awareness that, faced with issues as complex as climate change, individual and / or national action is not enough; instead it is necessary to implement a responsible collective response truly intended to ‘work together in building our common home’,” the Pope writes, quoting the “Laudato Si’”. “On the other hand, the rapid entry into force of the Agreement strengthens the conviction that we can and we must employ our intelligence to guide technology, as well as to cultivate and also to limit our power, and to ‘put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral’, able to put the economy at the service of the human person, to build peace and justice and to safeguard the environment.”
The Paris agreement, Francis continues, “has traced a clear path on which the entire international community is called to engage; the COP22 represents a central stage in this journey. It affects all humanity, especially the poorest and the future generations, who represent the most vulnerable component of the troubling impact of climate change, and call us to the grave ethical and moral responsibility to act without delay, in a manner as free as possible from political and economic pressures, setting aside particular interests and behaviour.”
In the message addressed to participants of the meeting in Marrakech, introduced by the outgoing secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, the Pope expresses the hope that participants’ “work in these days be inspired by the same collaborative and constructive spirit expressed during COP21. After this latter there began the phase of implementing the Paris Agreement: a delicate moment of exchange, entering in a more concrete way into the formulation of rules, institutional mechanisms and the elements necessary for correct and effective implementation. These are complex aspects that cannot be delegated solely to technical expertise but which require continual political support and encouragement, based on the recognition that we are ‘we are one single human family. There are no frontiers or barriers, political or social, behind which we can hide, still less is there room for the globalisation of indifference’,” Francis writes quoting the “Laudato Si’”.
“One of the main contributions of this Agreement is that of stimulating the promotion of strategies for national and international development based on an environmental quality that we could define as fraternal; indeed, it encourages solidarity in relation to the most vulnerable and builds on the strong links between the battle against climate change and that of poverty. Although there are many elements of a technical nature involved in this field, we are also aware that it cannot all be limited solely to the economic and technological dimension: technical solutions are necessary but they are not enough; it is essential and proper to take into careful consideration also the ethical and social aspects of the new paradigm of development and progress.”
The Pope ends his message by wishing that the work being done at the Conference in Marrakech is “guided by that awareness of our responsibility that must drive each one of us to promote seriously a ‘culture of care which permeates all society’, care in relation to creation, but also for our neighbour, near or far in space and time. The lifestyle based on the throwaway culture is unsustainable and must have no place in our models of development and education. This is an educational and cultural challenge, which must respond also to the process of implementing the Paris Agreement if it is to be truly effective. While I pray for the successful and fruitful work of the Conference, I invoke upon you and all the participants the Blessing of the Almighty, which I ask you to convey to all the citizens of the countries you represent.”
