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Vatican tells COP27 that climate action 'can no longer be postponed'

Ellen Teague - The Tablet - Sun, Nov 20th 2022

Pope Francis said he hoped that “steps forward are taken with courage and determination”.
Vatican tells COP27 that climate action 'can no longer be postponed'

Climate activists from Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development raise concerns in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. CNS photo/Doreen Ajiambo, National Catholic Reporter

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has told world leaders at COP27 that “concrete decisions” to tackle the climate crisis “can no longer be postponed”.

Representing the Vatican at the United Nations’ climate conference in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, He told around 200 countries negotiating next steps on cutting the emissions that cause global warming that “we cannot ignore” the link between the climate crisis and lack of access to food and water.

Pope Francis offered his encouragement, saying as COP27 started on 7 November that he hoped that “steps forward are taken with courage and determination, in the footsteps of the Paris Accords”.

The Pope also promoted the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, which was set up to consolidate efforts to implement the Pope’s 2015 encyclical on the Care of our Common Home. “I encourage this crucial mission for the future of humanity, so that it may foster in everyone a concrete commitment to care for creation,” he said.

The film The Letter has been shown twice at COP27, hosted by the Government of Senegal, the Holy See and the Laudato Si Movement. The documentary is devoted to protecting and saving “our common home”.

Last Saturday, on the Global Day for Climate Action at COP27, hundreds of campaigners staged a march inside the COP27 conference centre, since they were not allowed to protest on the streets. The group chanted slogans like “no climate justice without human rights”. 

One of the faith group protesters present blew a shofar or ram’s horn to announce the year of biblical jubilee at COP27. It was symbolic of a time to cancel unpayable debts of climate-vulnerable countries, release people from oppression, and let the land and wildlife regenerate, they explained. The Baptist Union Environmental Network was amongst those calling for a “sabbath for the earth”. One of the leaders of the march was a Filipino climate justice activist who highlighted the murder and imprisonment in the Philippines of environmental land protectors, as well as civil society and religious leaders. 

Internationally, walkers of Laudato Si’ Philippines called for an end to fossil fuels and for loss and damage reparations. In Lisbon, Portugal, hundreds of people took to the streets and stormed a building where the country’s economy minister Antonio Costa e Silva was speaking, demanding that the former oil executive resign. Thousands marched in cities across Asia, Africa and Europe calling for reparations for those worst affected by climate breakdown and for fossil fuels to stay in the ground.

Experts and religious leaders discussed shared values, culture and advocacy at a meeting on faith and ethical perspectives on the “right to a healthy environment” at COP27, organised by the Parliament of World Religions. They called on world leaders to sign the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Vatican has signed and the Focolare Movement added its name last week. The signatories say that although the Paris Agreement set a crucial global climate target, many governments have continued to approve new coal, oil and gas extraction even though burning these fossil fuels would result in emissions seven times greater than those consistent with keeping warming below 1.5°C.

On 8 November Filipino environmental groups marked the ninth anniversary of the devastation of super typhoon Haiyan in 2013. A Mass was celebrated at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Sharm El-Sheikh. The Catholic Church has highlighted that typhoons are getting stronger each year and threaten poor and vulnerable communities in the Philippines.

Church leaders through Africa and the Amazon appealed for the inclusion of Indigenous communities and their leaders as key dialogue partners when large-scale land acquisition projects involve their land or when interventions are being designed to tackle climate change. Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of SECAM’s Justice, Peace and Development Commission, signed a statement titled “No climate justice without land justice”.  Caritas Internationalis Secretary-General Aloysius John summed up deliberations on loss and damage: “People are suffering due to climate change and rich countries will have to pay for this.”

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