VATICAN (CNS): “The time has come for a change in direction. Let us not rob the new generations of their hope in a better future,” Pope Francis said in a video message to the Climate Ambition Summit, which was held online December 12 and marked the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
He pledged that the Vatican City State would achieve net-zero carbon emissions before the year 2050 and urged everyone in the world to be part of a new culture of care for others and the planet.
The pope was one of around 75 leaders who participated in the summit, co-hosted by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and France, and in partnership with Chile and Italy.
Participants renewed or strengthened investment pledges and commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality.
Some 24 leaders announced their commitment to net-zero emissions, which would be achieving a balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions taken out of the atmosphere, for example by switching to “green” energy and sustainable agriculture, increasing energy efficiency and reforestation.
Pope Francis said everyone has a responsibility “to promote, with a collective commitment and solidarity, a culture of care, which places human dignity and the common good at the centre.”
He said that means there are some measures that can no longer be postponed, including implementing strategies to reduce net emissions to zero.
The Holy See is committed to this objective, the pope said, saying that the Vatican City State will work to reduce net emissions to zero by 2050, and it will continue to strengthen and expand its efforts toward greater energy efficiency, improved resource management, sustainable transportation and waste management, and reforestation.
The Holy See also is committed to promoting a greater understanding of integral ecology, Pope Francis said.
“Politics and technology must unite behind an educational process which favours a cultural model of development and sustainability focused on fraternity and an alliance between human beings and the environment,” the pope said.
In a message for the summit, Peter Cardinal Turkson, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, wrote, “God has entrusted us with this planet and its wonderful resources,” appealing to world leaders to look at earth’s assets as a common good for all people and to focus much more on those who are the poorest and most vulnerable.
