UN environment chief welcomes Pope’s climate warning
The head of the United Nations Environment Programme has welcomed the Pope’s encyclical calling for urgent action on key environmental issues
The head of the United Nations Environment Programme has welcomed the Pope’s climate change warning issued on Thursday.
His Holiness Pope Francis released his second encyclical at the Vatican City today which calls for urgent action on key environmental issues.
Achim Steiner, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP, released a statement saying: "The UN Environment Programme welcomes Pope Francis' unambiguous call to action in the face of global environmental degradation and climate change. This encyclical is a clarion call that resonates not only with Catholics, but with all of the Earth's peoples. Science and religion are aligned on this matter: The time to act is now.”
Pope Francis issued a stark warning on the “grave implications” of climate change on Thursday and called on wealthy countries to pay their “debt” to poorer nations and support mitigation and adaptation efforts.
The much anticipated 184-page encyclical on the environment was launched at a press conference at the Vatican City.
Mr Steiner added: "We share Pope Francis' view that our response to environmental degradation and climate change cannot only be defined by science, technology or economics, but is also a moral imperative. We must not overlook that the world's poorest and most vulnerable suffer most from the changes we are seeing. Humanity's environmental stewardship of the planet must recognise the interests of both current and future generations.
The pope warned of an “unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequence for all of us” and said developed, industrialised nations were primarily responsible and should help poorer states tackle the crisis.
Encyclicals are letters to clergy members and church officials that are considered authoritative papal documents.
The encyclical says: “In different ways, developing countries, where the most important reserves of the biosphere are found, continue to fuel the development of richer countries at the cost of their own present and future. The developed countries ought to help pay this debt by significantly limiting their consumption of non-renewable energy and by assisting poorer countries to support policies and programmes of sustainable development.”
The Argentinian pope did not speak at the press conference on Thursday morning, and Cardinal Peter Turkson, who wrote a draft of the document, addressed the press.
Referring to the key United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in Paris in December, when a global climate deal is expected to be signed, Steiner said: "With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in September and a climate agreement in December, we have the opportunity to positively change the course of history, creating a better and more equitable world for all.”