The Catholic Church across the Global South has sounded the alarm on climate change, calling for the end of fossil fuels while urging nations to avoid false “green” solutions that perpetuate exploitation of natural resources, ecosystems and people. Source: NCR Online.
“Abandoning fossil fuels is not only necessary to reduce emissions, but also to repair an ecological and moral debt to the Global South and communities affected by pollution, extraction, and climate change,” the declaration from the Episcopal Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar said.
The 34-page letter is the first joint appeal issued by the continental conferences of Catholic bishops in Latin America, Africa and Asia, representing 821 million Catholics.
The letter lays out an expansive Catholic vision for the forthcoming United Nations climate summit, COP30, in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil, in November.
“At COP30, we demand that states take transformative action based on human dignity, the common good, solidarity and social justice, prioritising the most vulnerable, including our sister Mother Earth,” the bishops said.
They described the UN climate gathering as a moment for the Church “to reaffirm its prophetic stance”.
“The Church will not remain silent. We will continue to raise our voice alongside science, civil society, and the most vulnerable, with truth and consistency, until justice is done.”
The statement, released at a press conference at the Vatican yesterday, comes five months before COP30 opens in Belém, where nations will review updated national climate targets.
Overall, countries have fallen short in meeting their current commitments, which remain significantly off track from achieving an average global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the more ambitious goal outlined in the Paris Agreement.
To help monitor national climate pledges, and call out noncompliance, the continental Church conferences are launching an Ecclesial Observatory on Climate Justice.
“Inspired by the cry of the peoples and the urgency of climate collapse, [we] stand together to raise a prophetic voice from the Global South,” they wrote.
We share a common conviction: without climate justice, there is no peace, without ecological conversion, there is no future, without listening to the people, there are no real solutions.”
FULL STORY
Bishops of Asia, Africa, Latin America unite in unprecedented climate appeal (By Brian Roewe, NCR Online)
