The Holy See’s diplomat to the United Nations has called for three key priorities in addressing the global crises of poverty, conflict and climate change. Source: OSV News.
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Holy See’s permanent observer to UN, delivered a statement on Friday at the UN General Assembly’s Second Committee Debate on sustainable development.
The archbishop described the current moment as a “critical juncture” in which those three crises have overlapped. As a result, he said, “a commitment to integral human development is more vital than ever”.
The World Bank Group’s 2024 “Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report” notes that efforts to reduce global poverty have “slowed to a near standstill,” with almost 700 million people, or 8.5 per cent of the world’s population, living on less than $US2.15 ($3.31) per day.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has identified more than 120 armed conflicts taking place throughout the world. Globally, defence spending reached $2.72 trillion in 2024, up 9.4 per cent from 2023, “the steepest rise since at least the end of the Cold War,” according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
In May, the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation reported that “global climate predictions show temperatures are expected to continue at or near record levels in the next five years, increasing climate risks and impacts on societies, economies and sustainable development”.
Archbishop Caccia pointed to Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ as “prophetic in its highlighting of the interconnectedness of people and the planet” – and quoted Pope Leo XIV, who recently lamented, “We seem incapable of recognising that the destruction of nature does not affect everyone in the same way.”
Archbishop Caccia proposed “three concrete approaches” to tackling the challenges at hand: rectifying ecological debt, taking concerted action to protect biodiversity, and promoting “education for integral ecology”.
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Tackle ecological debt, protect biodiversity and change hearts, says Vatican diplomat (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
