His
Holiness Pope Francis today called on world leaders to seal a strong agreement
at the Paris climate change meeting next month, adding that transforming
current development models was a “political and economic obligation”, as he
visited the global headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) in Nairobi.
Speaking
to an audience of thousands, which included UNEP Executive Director Achim
Steiner and United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) Director-General Sahle-Work
Zewde, Pope Francis placed particular emphasis on the need to adopt low-carbon
energy systems and end the “throw-away culture” that contributes to greenhouse
gas emissions.
“In
a few days, an important meeting on climate change will be held in Paris ... It
would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests to
prevail over the common good,” Pope Francis said. “In this international
context, we are confronted with a choice which cannot be ignored: either to
improve or to destroy the environment.
“COP21
(the climate meeting) 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.”
UNEP’s
Emissions Gap report, released in early November, showed that the expected
Paris commitments from member states will cut up to 4 to 6 gigatonnes of carbon
dioxide equivalent per year from global emissions in 2030. This, however, is 12
gigatonnes short of the level that will keep the world on track to stay below
the “safe” limit of a 2°C temperature rise this century.
UNEP
Executive Director Achim Steiner praised Pope Francis’s moral leadership on the
environment— which the Pontiff has already displayed with his encyclical
‘Laudato Si’ calling on the faithful to embrace their responsibilities to the
environment—saying it added global momentum to efforts to close this emissions
gap and implement the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Addressing
the world just a few days before the Paris climate conference, with the future
of this planet hanging in the balance, you (Pope Francis) 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,” Mr. Steiner said.
“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.”
Pope
Francis also touched upon the need to create a world in which unsustainable
consumption and production patterns—which contribute to pollution, ecosystem
degradation and climate change through the wasteful use of resources in the
production of food and other goods—are ended.
“This
calls for an educational process which fosters in boys and girls, women and
men, young people and adults, the adoption of a culture of care—care for
oneself, care for others, care for the environment—in place of a culture of
waste, a ‘throw-away culture’ where people use and discard themselves, others
and the environment.”
As
a further symbol of his environmental commitment, Pope Francis planted an Olea
capensis, an indigenous tree found across the continent of Africa, on the
grounds of the UN headquarters before his talk.
“Planting
a tree is first and foremost an invitation to continue the battle against
phenomena like deforestation and desertification,” he said. “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.”
Mr.
Steiner took Pope Francis on a tour of the UNEP offices, a sustainable facility
powered largely by solar panels, to demonstrate renewable energy and energy
efficiency in practice.
There,
Mr. Steiner presented Pope Francis with an elephant created from discarded
flip-flops (a product designed to draw attention to the issue of marine litter
and plastic waste) as a token of his appreciation for the Pope’s commitment to
the environment.
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