As more forces threaten the environment every day, the Pope says: “The time to find global solutions is running out.”
Pope Francis made this statement in a message sent to the Minister of the Environment of Peru, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, on the occasion of the 20th Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention of the U.N. on Climate Change. The convention is being hosted in Lima through Friday and began Dec. 1.
“What you are going to debate affects the whole of humanity, in particular the poorest and future generations,” Francis said. “More than that, it is a grave ethical and moral responsibility.”
The consequences of environmental changes, the Pope noted, remind us of the gravity of negligence and inaction.
“The time to find global solutions is running out,” he warned. “We will only be able to find adequate solutions if we act together and in agreement.”
“Hence, there is a clear, definitive and inescapable, moral imperative to act,” he stressed.
Effectively combatting global warming, he said, can only be possible with a “responsible collective answer, that goes beyond particular interests and behaviors” and is developed without political and economic pressures.
Protecting the planet and the human family, he noted, requires overcoming attitudes of mistrust and promoting a culture of solidarity, encounter and dialogue.
The Pope concluded, expressing his hope that the Lima conference and subsequent meetings “will be decisive for the negotiations on climate” and will create a “dialogue permeated by this culture and by the values that it holds: justice, respect and equity.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full Translation: http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-message-to-un-convention-on-climate-change
