VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis challenged governments on Sunday
to take “drastic measures” to combat global warming and reduce the use of
fossil fuels, saying the world was experiencing a climate emergency.
Calling the
U.N. summit “of particular importance,” he added:
“There,
governments will have the responsibility of showing the political will to take
drastic measures to achieve as quickly as possible zero net greenhouse gas
emissions and to limit the average increase in global temperature to 1.5
degrees Celsius with respect to pre-industrial levels, in accordance with the
Paris Agreement goals.”
Francis has
made many calls for environmental protection and has clashed over climate
change with skeptics leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump, who has taken
the United States out of the Paris accord.
“We have
caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself,
including our own,” the leader of the world’s 1.3 billon Roman Catholics said
in the message for the prayer day, which is marked by various Christian
Churches.
Advertisement
“Our prayers and appeals are directed first at raising the awareness of
political and civil leaders,” he said, adding that governments should “renew
commitments decisive for directing the planet towards life, not death”.
He listed
constant pollution, continued use of fossil fuels, intensive agricultural
exploitation and deforestation as being among the man-made causes of global
warming and said the Amazon, where fires are raging, is “gravely threatened”.
“Now is the
time to abandon our dependence on fossil fuels and move, quickly and
decisively, towards forms of clean energy and a sustainable and circular
economy,” he said.
Other
phenomena, such as the melting of glaciers and the presence of plastic and
microplastics in the oceans “testify to the urgent need for interventions that
can no longer be postponed,” he said.
“Egoism and
self-interest have turned creation, a place of encounter and sharing, into an
arena of competition and conflict,” he said.
Francis, who
wrote an encyclical in 2015 on environmental protection, said now was the time
for people to reflect on their lifestyles, urging them not to make “thoughtless
and harmful” decisions” on food, consumption and transportation.
“Too many of
us act like tyrants with regard to creation,” he said.
Protection of
the environment is expected to be a main these of the pope’s trip to Africa,
which starts on Wednesday.
Reporting By Philip Pullella. Editing by Jane Merriman
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust
Principles.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento