Church calls for action on climate change at Paris summit

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In villages in the area of Wayanad in the Indian state of Kerala, the Caritas FARM programme introduced organic farming methods to family farmers. Photo by Laura Sheahen for Caritas

Bishops’ conferences from around the world have appealed for negotiating parties and heads of state to work towards a new international climate agreement.

Taking inspiration from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, Caring for our Common Home, the appeal calls on leaders to accept that climate and the atmosphere are global common goods and asks them to consider the ethical and moral dimensions of climate change.

The appeal was co-written by the international development alliance CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis and contains a ten-point plan which outlines ways in which the poor can be put at the centre of future climate negotiations. The heads of regional bishops’ conferences signed the appeal, which was sponsored by the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. Read the full statement in English.

Caritas Internationalis will be at the COP21 climate meeting in Paris, where it will ask leaders to:

  • Sign up to a legally binding climate change agreement which has positive effects for the world’s population and which protects the poor and most vulnerable people from paying the highest price for climate change.
  • Support a human rights-based approach in the climate agreement in which the right to food is guaranteed and human dignity is respected and promoted.
  • Ensure industrialised countries honour their funding commitment of US$100 billion per year to climate with 50 percent of public finances allocated to adaptation. Grassroots projects funded should be environmentally sustainable and socially just. Developing countries must be supported in acquiring the capacity to integrate their climate targets into their economic and development planning.
  • Encourage the building of new models of development and lifestyles that both counter global warming and bring people out of poverty. Crucial to this is phasing out fossil fuels and bringing in renewable and sustainable energy.

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