The Vatican’s Secretary of State has made an impassioned appeal to the international community to tackle global warming.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a message to a UN summit on climate change, which was delivered by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, who said that the evidence for global warming was unequivocal and that climate change was principally the result of human behaviour.
“Prudence must prevail,” the Indian-born archbishop said, and called for “a great political and economic commitment” to tackling levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
“There is no room for the globalisation of indifference, the economy of exclusion or the throwaway culture so often denounced by Pope Francis,” he said.
He called for “a profound and far-sighted revision of models of development and lifestyles”, highlighting the “significant efforts” the Vatican City State had already made to reduce its consumption of fossil fuels through diversification and through energy efficiency projects.
But he said that such measures alone were not enough, adding that respect for the environment depended on respect for human dignity within society. This was something that Catholic schools, parishes and charities sought to instil in their members, he added.
“Market forces alone, especially when deprived of a suitable ethical direction, however, cannot resolve the interdependent crisis concerning global warming, poverty and exclusion,” he added.
He went on: “States have a common responsibility to protect the world climate by means of mitigation and adaptation measures, as well as by sharing technologies and “know-how”.
But above all they have a shared responsibility to protect our planet and the human family, ensuring present and future generations have the possibility of living in a safe and worthy environment.”
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