CAFOD to attend Vatican ecology conference

Dr Michał Kurtyka

An International Conference at the Vatican, entitled 'Saving our Common Home and the Future of Life on Earth' begins tomorrow, 5 July. Organized to coincide with the third anniversary of Pope Francis' Encyclical 'Laudato Sì', the two day event will look at the next steps Catholics can take to inspire the world to increase global ambition on keeping temperature rises below 1.5 Celsius, much as they did before the Paris talks in 2015. This is ahead of international summits such as COP24, IMF and World Bank meetings and the Global Climate Action Summit in California in September.

Pope Francis will be addressing the conference. Attendees will include: Dr Michał Kurtyka - President of COP24, the UN Climate Change conference in Poland in December; Lord Deben - Chair of UK Committee on Climate Change; Professor Nicholas Stern - London School of Economics; Dr Patricia Espinosa and Dr Christiana Figueres - Current and former UN climate chiefs Prof Hans Joachim Shellnuber - Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Bill McKibben - Founder, 350.org and CAFOD Director of Advocacy, Neil Thorns.

Thorns said: "The fact that so many prestigious climate change experts are heading to the Vatican for this conference is a testament to the leadership Pope Francis has provided on the issue. At the start of an important couple of years for our climate we find once again that the road to ambition starts in Rome.

"When the Pope speaks, the world listens. And there's no doubting the urgency of Francis's message in a year when we'll see a greater focus on what a 1.5 degree temperature rise will mean and when we're expecting countries to take stock of current ambitions.

"This conference is about how Catholic groups around the world can continue to respond to that message from the Pope, as so many thousands already have by making changes to their lifestyles and by lobbying leaders to ensure we don't leave it too late to act."