Pope Francis renews his call to save our common home, and other prominent figures join him as advocates for the message contained in the encyclical Laudato si'.
Tackling climate change requires "honesty, courage and responsibility, especially on the part of the most powerful and polluting countries." Three years after the publication of the encyclical Laudato si', Pope Francis has returned to speak about ecology, reducing greenhouse gases and sustainable development: he did so by addressing the international conference Saving our common home and the future of life on Earth, organised from 5 to 7 July at the Vatican by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development specifically to assess the impact of the encyclical and to identify possible future developments.
The conference, in fact, preceded by a few months the Global Climate Action Summit – scheduled for 12 to 14 September in San Francisco – and above all Cop 24, which will begin on 3 December in Poland and is "a milestone on the path traced by the Paris Agreement in 2015"; all this in anticipation of the Special Synod for the Amazon, to be held in Rome in October 2019, through which the Vatican will once again shine a spotlight on the themes of Laudato si'.
In the meantime, the Pontiff stressed that in order to avert the danger "of leaving future generations rubble, deserts and filth", what is needed is "an organic and concerted action of integral ecology." He also highlighted the great responsibilities incumbent upon governments and the leading international organisations. As for the former, "all should strive to honour the commitments made in Paris to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis," because "we cannot afford to waste time in this process." At the same time, "a shift in the financial paradigm is needed in order to promote integral human development: international organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, can facilitate effective reforms for more inclusive and sustainable development."
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A powerful warning, all the more so at a historic moment when the United States and Europe are grappling with the management of an unprecedented migration phenomenon, also driven by climate change. On this point, the words of Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, were particularly forceful: "When we talk about what may happen to nature, there can be no complacency. We must act now, all together. In this century there are signs that foreshadow a very dangerous ecological holocaust; within a few years the world will see at least 150 million people doing everything they can for a glass of water."
For the Myanmar cardinal, in short, "democracy itself is at risk" and it is necessary to act now "otherwise history will remember us as criminals." An appeal shared by India's Macson Almeida, who stressed that Asia is one of the continents most vulnerable to the effects of greenhouse gases: "We must move and we must do so quickly, because the lives of so many people who are young today depend on it; every year we spend negotiating is time lost."
A difficult challenge, then. Although, to use the words of Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, "we all know how precarious the situation of our planet is today." This is due in part to the encyclical Laudato si', "a timely response to one of the most urgent challenges humanity must face today, namely a possible collapse of the very home that sustains us and all forms of life." A text that has conveyed the fundamental message of an integral ecology, according to which everything is interconnected: "As members of the common family, we must all come together to commit to saving our common home." It is no coincidence that, in closing the proceedings, Pope Francis encouraged everyone to fight for radical change: "Injustice is not invincible," but what is needed is that radical change of pace which, from 2015 to the present, has only been glimpsed. The forthcoming international events will have to provide the answers to this call.
