Sir David King hailed Pope Francis’s leadership ahead of COP21

British scientist Sir David King currently serving as the UK’s special representative on climate change calls on individuals and world leaders to act now to save our planet for future generations.

Sir David King (pictured left) talks to officials in the Vatican about the Pope’s impending encyclical on the environment and the influence he can exert over people globally on this critical issue of climate change.

Pope Francis’s (pictured right) leadership on the environment and the dangers posed by climate change will have a vital impact in the lead up to the international summit to be held in Paris this December.

Sir David, who was formerly the Chief Scientific advisor for both the governments of Tony Blair and later Gordon Brown in Britain, spoke to Philippa Hitchen about his expectations for the Paris Summit and his message to church leaders in the Vatican, “2015 is probably the most important year in the history of humanity, since 1945 when we came to the end of the Second World War and the United Nations was formed”.

He continued: “I’m reasonably optimistic that there will be an agreement at the end of the meeting this year. But I want to emphasise that Paris is the beginning of the next phase of the process. We’ve got to have a collective global decision to attempt to manage this problem and I believe that climate change is a big existential challenge to our civilisation”.

Sir David looks forward to the Pope’s encyclical on ecology and praised the efforts that the Pope has already made. “Pope Francis has already had an impact and in the run up to the meeting in Paris I think his impact is almost immeasurable [since his message] doesn’t only go out to Catholics but to people across the world”.

He added: “His reach has become quite remarkable since he became Pope and I think it’s exactly what we need. There is I think a shortage of leadership on this issue, visionaries who are prepared to stand up and say what needs to be said, there’s too much caution about there’s too much concern about ‘short termism’ and in my view the Pope is moving into exactly the right position, there’s the leadership we need”.

According to Sir David “The scientific community is saying that we know with 95% certainty that the climate change we’re seeing is due to our burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. 95% certainty from the scientific community is a pretty hefty statement”. He also believes that this is the most exciting period of innovation since the Industrial Revolution.