Pope Francis Urges Collective Action To Battle Climate Change
By UCA News
Pope Francis has highlighted the challenges brought on by environmental degradation while urging the international community to implement last year’s Paris Agreement in a message to a U.N. conference, reports Vatican Radio.
“The current situation of environmental degradation which is strongly connected to the human, ethical and social degradation that we unfortunately experience daily, challenges us all, each of us with our own roles and competencies, and brings us together here with a renewed sense of awareness and responsibility,” said Pope Francis in a message to the participants of a U.N. climate change conference taking place in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, Nov. 7-18.
The pope said that Paris Agreement represents “a significant acknowledgement of the fact that, when confronted with issues so complex as climate change, the individual and/or national action is no longer sufficient, but there is a need to implement a responsible collective response truly aimed at achieving cooperation to build our common home.”
The Paris Agreement entered into force on Nov. 4 and it has so far been ratified by 109 countries. The agreement’s objectives are to move the global economy away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.