Receiving the participants in the International Conference on Saving the Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth, on the third anniversary of the encyclical Laudato si ', Francis states that "reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most"
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - " All governments should strive to honour the commitments made in Paris, in order to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis" and international institutions "promote the culture and practice of an integral ecology".
Today's audience at the participants in the International Conference on Saving the Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth, on the third anniversary of the encyclical Laudato si ', gave Pope Francis the opportunity to reiterate the principle that to avert the danger of leaving “future generations only rubble, deserts and refuse" requires "an organic and concerted action of integral ecology".
"The reduction of greenhouse gases - he warned - requires honesty, courage and responsibility, especially from the most powerful and polluting countries"
"The COP24 Summit, to be held in Katowice, Poland, in December, could prove a milestone on the path set out by the 2015 Paris Agreement. We all know that much still needs to be done to implement that Agreement. All governments should strive to honour the commitments made in Paris, in order to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. “Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most” (ibid., 169), and we cannot afford to waste time".
In this process also " local authorities, civil society, and economic and religious institutions can promote the culture and practice of an integral ecology". The Pope, hoping that events such as the Global Climate Action Summit, scheduled for September 12-14 in San Francisco provide adequate responses, said that even financial institutions "have an important role to play". " financial paradigm shift is needed, for the sake of promoting integral human development. International organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank can encourage effective reforms for more inclusive and sustainable development. It is to be hoped that “finance... will go back to being an instrument directed towards improved wealth creation and development".
And even religions, in particular the Christian Churches, have a key role to play in supporting and stimulating ecological conversion. "The Day of Prayer for Creation and the initiatives connected to it, begun within the Orthodox Church, are spreading in Christian communities all over the world".
Other central actors, for the Pope, are the young people and the indigenous peoples, at the center of the next two synods of the Catholic Church and at the forefront of the integral ecological challenge. " It grieves us to see the lands of indigenous peoples expropriated and their cultures trampled on by predatory schemes and by new forms of colonialism, fuelled by the culture of waste and consumerism".
Finally, Francis encouraged all to continue "to work for the radical change which present circumstances require". "Injustice is not invincible".