Votes : 0
Urgent action needed to avoid climate disaster says bishop
One in three Catholics said the government is doing too little to support poorer countries to tackle climate change.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced that he would be attending the COP27 climate change summit in Egypt after previously saying he would skip it. - Tejas Sandhu / SOPA Images/Sipa
Urgent action is needed at an international level to avert the potential disaster of climate change, a senior Catholic bishop has said.
Bishop John Arnold, environmental lead for the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said on the eve of COP27 opening in Egypt, said: “It is vital that steps are taken to limit global temperatures.”
He was speaking as a YouGov poll commissioned by Cafod shows nearly six out of ten Catholics feel the government has done too little to tackle climate change in the last year. Just 20 per cent of Catholics and 24 per cent of Christians believe the government is committed to its net zero target and reducing reliance on fossil fuels. One in three Catholics said the government is doing too little to support poorer countries to tackle climate change.
In a statement prepared in consultation with Cafod and released today, Bishop Arnold said: “It is our Christian duty to protect our planet. We have been blessed with stewardship of the earth, but that means we must take responsibility to ensure we protect the planet for future generations. Pope Francis tells us in his encyclical Laudato Si’ that our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with God. It is on us then to do whatever we can to care for our world and not to rob resources from future generations – to fail to do so damages our relationship with God.”
Over the next two weeks, the eyes of the world will be on Egypt as world leaders gather at COP27 to discuss the shared challenge of the climate crisis.
“I will be praying for our world leaders in the hope that they can develop solutions to the defining challenge of our generation. The planet is in danger. Recent scientific reports show we are still off track to keeping us all safe and we know it is the poorest communities in our world who are suffering most from a crisis they did not cause. No more so than our brothers and sisters in East Africa, who are experiencing the worst drought for 40 years. This has left many millions on the cusp of starvation.”
Cafod and its partners are doing what they can to respond, but action is needed at an international level to avert this potential disaster, he added. “We need concrete action to keep us within a 1.5 degree temperature rise. We need to focus on investing in renewable energy and move away from fossil fuels. At COP27, we need action to shift to a food system which does not harm our planet and has feeding all people nutritious food at its heart.
“We know that the world faces a financial crisis but we hope that governments can come to a solution where those most in need are put at the top of the agenda, with those who have caused the climate crisis providing their fair share.
“Pope Francis reminded us that the climate is a common good belonging to all and meant for all. I pray our world leaders, and all of us at home, heed that reminder and make changes to safeguard our common home for future generations.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned that the world is at a “near point of no return” and called for climate justice.
“As global leaders gather at COP27, the world holds its breath. A world which has this year suffered further catastrophic flooding, drought, heatwaves and storms. A world already in crisis. A world which knows that we are perilously near the point of no return,” he said.
“The climate emergency is an existential global threat that requires a global response, with radical action, imagination and justice. Let us together see justice done, so that countries can access new and fair finance for the loss and damage caused by climate change.”
In a blog for The Tablet, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa, says: “The solutions to this crisis must not continue the business-as-usual approach that is responsible for creating the problem in the first place and will only enrich wealthy nations and individuals at the expense of the world’s poor.”
tags :
Without comments 