The Pope sent a message to the COP26 Conference

On Tuesday, November 2, 2021, the Pope sent a message to Mr. Alok Sharma, President of the COP26 Climate Change Conference, emphasizing "this is a decisive moment to give the young generation reason to believe in the future."

The message was summarized by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, at the Conference and given in full to the participants.

At the beginning, the Pope wrote: "When the Glasgow Conference began, we were all aware that this Conference had the important task of showing the international community that, if there is political will, there will be a more honest, responsible and courageous allocation of human, financial and technological resources to reduce the negative impacts of climate change and help the poor and vulnerable."

According to the Pope, due to the pandemic, the Conference must do more. And we can only complete this task when we achieve the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

Regarding this task, the Pope said the Holy See has taken steps: At the Climate Summit on December 12, 2020, Vatican City State committed to reducing emissions to zero before 2050 and promoting education on integral ecology. And on October 4, at a meeting with religious leaders and scientists, the Pope joined them in signing a joint call for COP26.

The Pope reiterated the issue of "ecological debt", that is, currently poor countries are in debt to rich countries, but developed countries themselves must contribute to solving "ecological debt" by limiting the consumption of non-renewable energy and contributing resources to poor countries, in order to promote sustainable development policies and programs.

The Pope also emphasized that in fighting climate change, we must bitterly realize that we are still far from achieving the expected goals. We don't have time to wait anymore. To date, too many people have suffered from this climate crisis. Moreover, this phenomenon has also become a crisis of children's rights, and in the near future, there will be a crisis of the rights of those who have to migrate because of the environment, this number is even larger than the number of migrants due to conflict.

The Pope ended his message with the urging of young people: "In recent years, young people have always asked us to act resolutely. They will not have another planet other than the one we leave them. This is a decisive moment to give young people reason to believe in the future." (CSR_7227_2021)

Source: Ngoc Yen - Vatican News