The Holy See wants to contribute to and support the effort of States to solve environmental issues and meet the challenges of climate change. On Wednesday, Archbishop Caccia deposited the instrument with the UN General Secretariat. A transition towards a development model "based on solidarity and on responsibility”.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The Holy See has formally acceded to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Climate Accords.
In a press release published today by its Press Office, “the Holy See, in the name and on behalf of Vatican City State, intends to contribute and to give its moral support to the efforts of all States to cooperate” and adopt “an effective and appropriate response to the challenges posed by climate change to humanity and to our common home””
On Wednesday, Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, Permanent Observer to the UN, deposited before the Secretary-General of the United Nations the instrument with which the Holy See accedes to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In the past, Pope Francis spoke out several times on environmental issues, which need “honesty, responsibility and courage” at a time of an increasingly "desperate cry of the earth and its poor”. For him, “Such challenges have «not only environmental, but also ethical, social, economic and political relevance, affect[ing] above all the life of the poorest and most fragile.”
From this comes the need to “to promote, through collective and joint commitment, a culture of care, which places human dignity and the common good” at the top of the agenda.
Inspired by the pope's “urgent call ‘for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet,” the statement stresses the “need” underscored in Laudato si’ for “a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all”.
Again, citing the papal encyclical on the environment, the Holy See statement notes that the Vatican hopes that the Convention and the Paris Agreement will “help to promote ‘remarkable convergence on the urgent need for a change of direction, a decisive resolve to pass from the ‘throwaway culture’ prevalent in our societies to a ‘culture of care’ for our common home and its inhabitants, now and in the future’.”
“Humanity possesses the wherewithal to effect this change, which calls for a genuine conversion, individual as well as communitarian, and a decisive will to set out on this path.”
This “will entail the transition towards a more integral and integrating model of development, based on solidarity and on responsibility”, which “are two core-values that must be at the basis of the implementation of the Convention and the Paris Agreement” and all other efforts in the climate field.