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VATICAN (Catholic News Agency via CBCP News) – Pope Francis on Saturday urged the adoption of a “climate of care” and said that Vatican City State is committed to reducing its net emissions to zero by 2050.
Speaking in a video message during the December 12 virtual Climate Ambition Summit, the Pope said that “the time has come for a change of course. Let’s not rob new generations of hope for a better future. “
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 collective commitment and solidarity, a culture of care, which puts human dignity and the common good at the center,” he said.
In addition to the goal of zero net emissions, Francis said that the Vatican is also committed to “intensifying environmental management efforts, already underway for some years, that allow the rational use of natural resources such as water and energy, efficiency energy, sustainable mobility, reforestation and circular economy also in waste management ”.
The Summit on Climate Ambition, which took place practically on December 12, was co-sponsored by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and France, in partnership with Chile and Italy.
The meeting marked five years since the Paris Agreement and took place before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to be held in Glasgow in November 2021.
In his video message, Pope Francis said that the Vatican is also committed to promoting education on integral ecology.
“Political and technical measures must be combined with an educational process that favors a cultural model of development and sustainability focused on brotherhood and the alliance between human beings and the environment,” he said.
Vatican-supported programs, such as Francesco’s Global Compact for Education and the Economy, had this perspective in mind, he added.
The British, French and Italian Embassies to the Holy See organized a webinar for the anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement.
In a video message for the webinar, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, said that states need “a new cultural model based on the culture of caring”, rather than the “culture of indifference, degradation and waste “.
This model is based on three concepts: consciousness, wisdom and will, Parolin said. “At COP26 we cannot miss the opportunity to highlight this moment of change and to make concrete and urgent decisions.”
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