‘The world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing breaking point’, Pope Francis says

In his latest encyclical on global warming Pope Francis has been scathing about the various international gatherings on global warming that have taken place since the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“Whatever is being done risks being seen only as a ploy to distract attention,” he said in the 11-page encyclical, Laudate Deum (Praise God), published on Wednesday.

An encyclical, or papal document, is an extended letter to Roman Catholics. It is the highest level of teaching document a pope can issue and is intended to teach and guide the faithful.

His warning follows his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si (teaching document), in which he endorsed the scientific consensus on a need for global efforts to confront climate change. Noting that eight years had passed since that encyclical was published, he said that “with the passage of time, I have realised that our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point”.

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In his latest encyclical, he recalled how “for several decades now, representatives of more than 190 countries have met periodically to address the issue of climate change” and yet despite these “many negotiations and agreements, global emissions continue to increase”.

Arising from these conferences there were “no provisions for sanctions in the case of unfulfilled commitments, nor effective instruments to ensure their fulfilment”, he said.

The world “must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes”, he said.

The next Conference of the Parties (COP28) will take place in the United Arab Emirates, “a country of the Persian Gulf known as a great exporter of fossil fuels, although it has made significant investments in renewable energy sources”, he said. “Meanwhile, gas and oil companies are planning new projects there, with the aim of further increasing their production.”

If there was “sincere interest in making COP28 a historic event that honours and ennobles us as human beings, then one can only hope for binding forms of energy transition”, he said. “May those taking part in the conference be strategists capable of considering the common good and the future of their children, more than the short-term interests of certain countries or businesses. In this way, may they demonstrate the nobility of politics and not its shame.”

It was also the case that “despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over or relativise the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident” even as “in recent years, some have chosen to deride these facts”.

There were “those who would place responsibility on the poor, since they have many children, and even attempt to resolve the problem by mutilating women in less developed countries”. He noted how per capita emissions of richer countries were “much greater than those of the poorer ones”.

“How can we forget that Africa, home to more than half of the world’s poorest people, is responsible for a minimal portion of historic emissions?”

He felt “obliged to make these clarifications, which may appear obvious, because of certain dismissive and scarcely reasonable opinions that I encounter, even within the Catholic Church”.

Meanwhile, in a sermon at Mass in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday to mark the beginning of the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality, he warned against “ideological battles” in discussions over coming weeks. The Synod, which takes place behind closed doors, concludes on October 29th and continues in October 2024.

The Synod, he said, was “not a political gathering, but a convocation in the Spirit; not a polarised parliament, but a place of grace and communion”.