Pope Francis issued a sweeping official papal document that called on governments to take quick action to address climate change that he said disproportionately affected the poor.
The pope’s encyclical, a formal effort to put social issues in the context of Roman Catholic thought that’s given to the church’s 5,000 bishops, said that markets and countries have failed to address the consequences of a warming planet. The document is intended to boost momentum heading into the United Nations climate negotiations that begin in late November in Paris.
Francis pinned much of the blame on burning greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels — a point on which he said there’s a “scientific consensus” — as well as unfettered faith in technology, market systems that have left out some of the world’s poor and short-sighted governments that delay taking action to reduce emissions.
“I will point to the intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet, the conviction that everything in the world is connected, the critique of new paradigms and forms of power derived from technology, the call to seek other ways of understanding the economy and progress, the value proper to each creature, the human meaning of ecology, the need for forthright and honest debate, the serious responsibility of international and local policy, the throwaway culture and the proposal of a new lifestyle,” Francis said.
The long-awaited decree, called “Laudato Si,” or “Praise be to you,” strayed from making any specific policy recommendations. Nonetheless, it has already caused a stir among the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics as well as on Capitol Hill.
Critics contend Francis is meddling in a political issue and commenting on scientific matters that they say don’t concern the church, while the political Right denounced what they saw as an attack on the free market and a disregard for cheap forms of energy that they attribute to alleviating poverty. Proponents, though, claim the action is long overdue and that it could lend moral weight to a problem that needs a swifter response.
“On many concrete questions, the church has no reason to offer a definitive opinion; she knows that honest debate must be encouraged among experts, while respecting divergent views. But we need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair,” Francis said.
“We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us,” the pope added.
Dubbed the “pope for the poor,” Francis emphasized that the effects of climate change inflict the most damage on the impoverished. Francis linked prolonged droughts, more intense storms and increased flooding to a warming planet. Francis said those effects contributed to water scarcity and droughts that harm agricultural production in Africa and produced refugees fleeing environmental destruction and worsening economic prospects, among other things.
The pope weighed in on one of the key issues dividing countries in the upcoming U.N. talks — whether rich nations responsible for a bulk of the world’s emissions that have caused warming to this point should shoulder a heavier burden for slashing emissions than developing countries.
Francis said the answer was undoubtedly yes.
“The poorest areas and countries are less capable of adopting new models for reducing environmental impact because they lack the wherewithal to develop the necessary processes and to cover their costs. We must continue to be aware that, regarding climate change, there are differentiated responsibilities,” Francis said.
Developing countries have pressed Western nations for more climate aid that they say is necessary to cope with the effects of a warming planet. Distrust is high — developing note rich countries have mobilized just $10 billion of the $100 billion of new climate aid they promised by 2020, but Western countries have contended that goal is and always was unrealistic.
The pope pinned part of that blame on week-kneed political leaders and companies trying to protect their bottom lines.
“It is remarkable how weak international political responses have been. The failure of global summits on the environment make it plain that our politics are subject to technology and finance,” he said. “There are too many special interests, and economic interests easily end up trumping the common good and manipulating information so that their own plans will not be affected.”
But Francis also goes beyond traditional climate change discussions. He harped on genetically modified crops grown by large agribusinesses that he said force small, poorer farmers out of the fields and positioned preserving entire ecosystems as a battle between fending off inequities in markets, political structures and personal income.
“[E]conomic powers continue to justify the current global system where priority tends to be given to speculation and the pursuit of financial gain, which fail to take the context into account, let alone the effects on human dignity and the natural environment,” the pope said.
