Church worldwide calls for ambitious and urgent climate action

Image: COMECE

Source: COMECE

Following the recent UN report on the urgent need to develop policies that limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, Mgr Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, President of COMECE, together with all the other presidents of continental Bishops' Conferences, calls politicians to work towards an ambitious implementation of the Paris Agreement. They ask for COP24 to prove a milestone in the path set out in 2015 in Paris.

Promoting the messages carried out by the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si', Church leaders from all around the world call for ambitious and immediate actions to be taken to tackle and overcome the devastating effects of the climate crisis.

In their statement, Bishops' Conferences from all continents urge world leaders to resist the temptation to look for short-term solutions without addressing the root causes and the long-term consequences.

The call is based on the principles of urgency, intergenerational justice, human dignity and human rights, ands demands policies that include the following elements:

• keeping global warming below 1.5°C;
• shifting towards sustainable lifestyles;
• respecting the knowledge of indigenous communities;
• implementing a financial paradigm shift in line with global climate accords;
• transforming the energy sector by putting an end to the fossil fuel era and transitioning to renewable energy;
• and rethinking the agriculture sector to ensure it provides healthy and accessible food for everyone, with a special emphasis on promoting agroecology.

The appeal was presented yesterday in Rome and signed by Mgr Jean-Claude Hollerich (President, COMECE), Cardinal Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco (President of CCEE), Cardinal Oswald Gracias (President of FABC), Mgr Peter Loy Chong (President of FCBCO), Mgr Gabriel Mbilingi (President of SECAM), and Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez (President of CELAM).

Read the full statement here:

www.caritas.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Final-statement_for-signature.pdf