- The Pope said what is particularly striking are the attempts made to shift the blame onto the poor and high birth rates.
- He said these are falsities that must be firmly dispelled.
Image: FILE
Pope Francis has linked the ongoing impacts of climate change to inordinate greed that has made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation.
“It has now become clear that the climate change presently taking place, stems from the overheating of the planet, caused chiefly by the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activity, which in recent decades has proved unsustainable for the ecosystem. The drive to produce and possess has become an obsession, resulting in an inordinate greed that has made the environment the object of unbridled exploitation,” Pope Francis said in a statement during the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in Dubai.
He added, “The climate, run amok, is crying out to us to halt this illusion of omnipotence. Let us once more recognise our limits, with humility and courage, as the sole path to a life of authentic fulfilment.”
Pope Francis reiterated that the destruction of the environment is an offence against God, a sin that is not only personal but also structural, one that greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable, and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.
He said the hurdles standing among countries must be removed if tangible solutions are to be attained.
“What stands in the way of this? The divisions that presently exist among us. Yet a world completely connected, like ours today, should not be unconnected by those who govern it, with international negotiations that cannot make significant progress due to positions taken by countries that place their national interests above the global common good.”
Pope Francis added, “We find ourselves facing firm and even inflexible positions calculated to protect income and business interests, at times justifying this on the basis of what was done in the past and periodically shifting the responsibility to others. Yet the task to which we are called today is not about yesterday but about tomorrow: a tomorrow that, whether we like it or not, will belong to everyone or else to no one.”
The Pope said what is particularly striking are the attempts made to shift the blame onto the poor and high birth rates.
He said these are falsities that must be firmly dispelled.
“It is not the fault of the poor, since the almost half of our world that is more needy is responsible for scarcely 10 per cent of toxic emissions, while the gap between the opulent few and the masses of the poor has never been so abysmal. The poor are the real victims of what is happening: we need think only of the plight of indigenous peoples, deforestation, the tragedies of hunger, water and food insecurity, and forced migration.”
Pope Francis said births are not a problem, but a resource: they are not opposed to life, but for life, whereas certain ideological and utilitarian models now being imposed with a velvet glove on families and peoples constitute real forms of colonisation.
He said the development of many countries, already burdened by grave economic debt, should not be penalised; instead, we should consider the footprint of a few nations responsible for a deeply troubling “ecological debt” towards many others.
“It would only be fair to find suitable means of remitting the financial debts that burden different peoples, not least in light of the ecological debt that they are owed.”
Pope Francis said it is up to this generation to heed the cry of peoples, the young and children, and to lay the foundations of a new multilateralism.
He said it is well known that various agreements and commitments have been poorly implemented, due to the lack of suitable mechanisms for oversight, periodic review and penalties in cases of non-compliance.