The chair of the Irish bishops’ Laudato Si’ working group is seeking a meeting with the Irish minister for the environment, Eamon Ryan, ahead of COP28.
Bishop Martin Hayes has requested the meeting with Ryan, who is leader of the Green Party, over Ireland’s commitments for the UN climate conference which will take place in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December.
The bishops’ Laudato Si’ working group wants Ireland to show leadership on the loss and damage fund to compensate countries suffering most from the climate crisis by announcing a significant contribution.
The group says the loss and damage fund urgently needs to be capitalised and that this could be achieved through additional, grant-based finance that is predictable and adequate.
In his correspondence to the minister and political parties north and south of the border, Bishop Hayes enclosed a copy of Pope Francis’ recent publication, Laudate Deum.
He told them Pope Francis’s decision to attend the conference demonstrated his commitment as a global environmental leader and he also emphasised that carbon capture and economics cannot solve the climate crisis.
Separately, Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin has warned that the fight against climate change is “moving at a snail’s pace on a global scale”.
In his address to the Archdiocese of Dublin’s Laudato Si’ conference, he noted that eight years after the Paris climate agreement, its pledges had been honoured “in the breach rather than the observance”.
He criticised the “lack of idealism among the Irish” and said that because of the lack of passion on the part of the majority of citizens, politicians will not act with boldness to propose solutions to deal with the issues confronting the planet.
He warned, “If there is to be an ecological transition, there is a need for the entire planet to abandon fossil fuels and transform lifestyles to make them compatible with ecological constraints”. Developing a sustainable economy is part of the change of mentality that must take place in order to save the planet from environmental destruction.
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