The Holy See has urged “generosity, solidarity and selflessness” in tackling climate change in order to prevent future generations from having to “pay the extremely high price of environmental deterioration.”
Addressing world leaders at a United Nations (UN) conference in New York exploring the connection between climate change and the organisation’s ambitious universal development agenda - known as the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ - the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer to the UN said that his delegation would like to “underline” the responsibility of all present to “those who come after us.”
“As Pope Francis affirms, 'intergenerational solidarity is not optional, but rather a basic question of justice, since the world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us'”, said Archbishop Bernardito Auza on 23 March, citing Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si.’
He also repeated the pope’s exhortation not to separate human existence from nature.
“As specific solutions are sought, we should also be mindful of 'how inseparable the bonds are between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and our own interior peace'", he said, once again directly referencing the pope’s encyclical on the environment.
He said that strategies for a solution demanded an integrated approach: combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded and protecting nature.
The same principle of interconnectedness binds together the three biggest United Nations processes in 2015 - the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for development, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – continued Archbishop Auza. Which should not be seen as three separate challenges, but one "overarching challenge " of how to orient all efforts toward "a sustainable, integral and authentic development in harmony with nature," he added.
He concluded with a call to focus on future generations:
“At the end of the day, their [the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement] positive impact on the human person, particularly on those left behind, will be the true measure of our success.”
PICTURE: A picture projected on St Peters Basilica during the light show 'Fiat Lux : Illuminating Our Common Home' on December 8, 2015 at the Vatican. The light show linked Pope Francis' environment encyclical Laudato Si with the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) which was underway at the time in Paris.
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