VATICAN (CNS): As the United Nations Climate Change Conference [COP26] neared its final day, the Vatican delegation urged parties to deliver on the financing, resources and standards needed to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.
“The ambitious commitments made by states to limit the rise of the global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to provide the needed financial resources to do so are promising and indeed essential for the survival of the most vulnerable communities,” the Vatican delegation said in its statement delivered on November 11.
“The Holy See delegation appreciates the commitments that states have made in their pledges. While there is more to be done, it is important to be proactive in finding effective ways to implement the pledges made,” it said during the COP26 conference, which was held from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.
The need to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation, particularly for poorer or more vulnerable nations, was a major concern for the Vatican delegation.
“The issue of loss and damage is particularly critical to those communities that are most vulnerable to climate change,” it said, adding that “Pope Francis has clearly emphasised the ecological debt and the solidarity that industrialised countries owe to the poor.”
It said, “The Holy See delegation hopes that the final decisions of this conference may be inspired by a genuine sense of responsibility toward present and future generations, as well as the care of our common home, and that these decisions may truly respond to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” and reiterated the pope’s recent appeal in a letter to the Catholics of Scotland: “Time is running out: This occasion must not be wasted.”
