With the Conference of Parties- COP 21- in Paris set to commence on Monday, Climate Activists, Global leaders and stakeholders have been talking about this crucial climate conference but even more eye-catching is the interest of the papacy in the climate talks. Pope Francis has now gained even more global attention with his commitment towards climate action. The Pope is currently visiting two African nations, Kenya and Uganda but it?s his visit to the United Nations office in Nairobi that many have chosen as their highlight of the trip so far. If his speech at the UN General Assembly was ever considered a one-off, this one wasn?t. He even has an encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si.     The Pope spoke, who planted a tree on his way to the meeting with UN officials, his heart out showing real concern for our planet. He said thus on Climate Change

 

Pope Francis on His Visit to Kenya Spoke on Climate Change (Speech Obtained from Vatican Radio)

"On my way to this hall, I was asked to plant a tree in the park of the United Nations Centre.  I was happy to carry out this simple symbolic act, which is so meaningful in many cultures.

Planting a tree is first and foremost an invitation to continue the battle against phenomena like deforestation and desertification.  It reminds us of the importance of safeguarding and responsibly administering "those richly biodiverse lungs of our planet", which include, on this continent, "the Congo basins", a place essential "for the entire earth and for the future of humanity".  It also points to the need to appreciate and encourage "the commitment of international agencies and civil society organizations which draw public attention to these issues and offer critical cooperation, employing legitimate means of pressure, to ensure that each government carries out its proper and inalienable responsibility to preserve its country's environment and natural resources, without capitulating to spurious local or international interests" (Laudato Si, 38).

Planting a tree is also an incentive to keep trusting, hoping, and above all working in practice to reverse all those situations of injustice and deterioration which we currently experience.

In a few days an important meeting on climate change will be held in Paris, where the international community as such will once again confront these issues.  It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to prevail over the common good and lead to manipulating information in order to protect their own plans and projects.

In this international context, we are confronted with a choice which cannot be ignored: either to improve or to destroy the environment.  Every step we take, whether large or small, individual or collective, in caring for creation opens a sure path for that "generous and worthy creativity which brings out the best in human beings" (ibid., 211).

"The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all" climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods it represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day (ibid., 23 and 25).  Our response to this challenge "needs to incorporate a social perspective which takes into account the fundamental rights of the poor and the underprivileged" (ibid., 93).  For "the misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion" (Address to the United Nations, 25 September 2015).

COP21 represents an important stage in the process of developing a new energy system which depends on a minimal use of fossil fuels, aims at energy efficiency and makes use of energy sources with little or no carbon content.  We are faced with a great political and economic obligation to rethink and correct the dysfunctions and distortions of the current model of development.

The Paris Agreement can give a clear signal in this direction, provided that, as I stated before the UN General Assembly, we avoid ?every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences.  We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective? (ibid.).  For this reason, I express my hope that COP21 will achieve a global and "transformational" agreement based on the principles of solidarity, justice, equality and participation an agreement which targets three complex and interdependent goals: lessening the impact of climate change, fighting poverty and ensuring respect for human dignity".

 

UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, Gave the Following Speech (Obtained from unep.org) During the Papal Visit

 

"Your Holiness, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: on behalf of all my colleagues at the United Nations Environment Programme-welcome to Nairobi!

It is an honor for us to host you in the Headquarters of the UN in Africa and the City of Nairobi, which we in UNEP have been proud to call our home for over four decades now. It is from here that we lead the United Nations effort on the environment-an effort that your voice now carries with a renewed sense of urgency the world needs to hear.

As both a leader of faith and a leader in our global community, your voice reaches across many boundaries. You have spoken to the challenges of our time with compassion, clarity and empathy you have shown unwavering commitment to confronting injustice, intolerance and inhumanity and you have combined the force of science and knowledge with spiritual values and moral orientation.

Through Laudato Si, your encyclical on the environment, and more recently in your address to the United Nations General Assembly, you shared a vision of a world in which people and nature can live in harmony. That inspiration guides us in understanding our responsibility to each other and to our planet, which today provides for 7 billion people, but must soon support 9 billion.

Addressing the world just a few days before the Paris climate conference, with the future of this planet hanging in the balance, you remind world leaders, business leaders and individual citizens that we each have not only a responsibility, but an obligation to act on what our conscience tells us to be right.

The United Nations has a unique role in focusing efforts on climate change and in forging consensus to allow the world to act together. We are the first to acknowledge that, at times, it can be a painfully slow journey from recognizing the challenge to delivering the solutions. Yet however slow, the progress is steady, as we have already seen with the reversal of damage to the Ozone layer. So, the United Nations does work, does make a real difference and does improve the lives of millions of people.

That is why-what has resonated for me personally-is your ability to frame our collective and personal obligation in terms that are full of hope. This is exactly the mindset we need.

In this pivotal year, your powerful notion of the "globalization of indifference" speaks to the heart of the practical and ethical challenges ahead: both to reach a climate change agreement in Paris and to deliver it within the much broader, holistic spectrum of sustainable development that must leave no one behind.

That approach has embedded climate change into the global consciousness. Not just the science on harmful emissions and the wasteful practices that contribute to them, but the wellbeing of a healthy planet that includes justice, equality and solidarity with the most vulnerable in society-the very people who are often the least responsible for the problem but the most affected by the consequences.

At a time when world leaders face some of the toughest decisions in a generation, the agenda for sustainable development demands hard choices between the narratives of conflict and competition that carry such seeds of destruction or striving towards an inclusive society that looks beyond self-interest to create jobs, opportunities and, most of all, hope. This cannot just be about the narrow pursuit of economic growth it must be about the value and the future of humanity living in harmony with nature and with each other.

Thank you for being with us today and for speaking from the heart of Africa to the hearts of people across the world".

 

It has been a great few days for climate talks in Africa and with the Pope interested in what happens over the next two weeks in Paris at the COP 21, our planet can only be in more a great time. I hope this is affirmed in Paris.

Thank you Pope Francis for adding your voice to this global action.

 

Photocredit 1: unep.org

Photocredit 2,3 & 4: Achim Steiner (via Facebook)