Pope Francis has committed the Vatican City State to reducing its net emissions to zero by 2050, while urging world leaders to adopt a “climate of care”, the Catholic News Agency reports.
Speaking in a video message during last weekend’s virtual Climate Ambition Summit, the Pope said “the time has come for a change of course. Let us not rob the new generations of hope in a better future”.
Pope Francis, pictured during a General Audience last month, addressed the UN Climate Ambition summit by video link (Photo: Vatican Media/CNA).
He also told summit participants that both climate change and the current pandemic disproportionately affect the lives of the poorest and weakest in society.
“In this way, they appeal to our responsibility to promote, with a collective commitment and solidarity, a culture of care, which places human dignity and the common good at the centre,” he stated.
In addition to the goal of net zero emissions, Pope Francis said the Vatican is also committed to “intensifying environmental management efforts, already underway for some years, that enable the rational use of natural resources such as water and energy, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, reforestation, and the circular economy also in waste management”.
The Climate Ambition Summit, held virtually on December 12, was co-hosted by the United Nations, United Kingdom, and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy.
The meeting marked five years since the Paris Agreement and took place in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow in November 2021.
In his video message, Pope Francis said the Vatican was also committed to promoting education on integral ecology.
“Political and technical measures must be combined with an educational process that favours a cultural model of development and sustainability centred on brotherhood and the alliance between human beings and the environment,” he said.
Vatican-supported programs such as the Global Education Pact and the Economy of Francesco had this perspective in mind, he added.
Meanwhile, political and religious leaders in Australia came out in strong support of an Open Letter from fifteen Pacific leaders to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, asking him to take urgent climate action ahead of the United Nations (UN) Climate Ambition Summit.
See full story from CNA.
Associated Coverage: UN defends excluding Morrison from climate summit, Canberra livid with Johnson over snub (Sydney Morning Herald).