There is a real danger that we will leave future generations only rubble, deserts and refuse
“There is a real danger that we will leave future generations only rubble, deserts and refuse,” Pope Francis warned a formal audience for the 400 participants at an environmental conference here last week.
“I hope that concern for the state of our common home will translate into systematic and concerted efforts aimed at an integral ecology. Humanity has the knowledge and the means to cooperate in responsibly “cultivating and protecting” the earth. Significantly, your discussions have addressed some of this year’s important steps in this direction.”
“Financial institutions, too, have an important role to play, as part both of the problem and its solution. A financial paradigm shift is needed, for the sake of promoting integral human development. International organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank can encourage effective reforms for more inclusive and sustainable development. It is to be hoped that “finance... will go back to being an instrument directed towards improved wealth creation and development” (Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 65), as well as towards care for the environment. All these actions presuppose a transformation on a deeper level, namely a change of hearts and minds.”
Organised by the Holy See Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the conference entitled “Saving our Common Home and Future of Life on Earth” gathered environmental NGO, youth and indigenous leaders, diplomats, scientists, clergy and academics.
The key aim of the event was to ‘see, judge, act’ and generate proposals for joint advocacy and action to bring about radical integral ecology on a global scale while preparing positions for forthcoming international events – such as the Global Climate Action Summit (for non-state actors) convened by the State of California in September, the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in October and the 24th UN climate change negotiations in December in Poland.
“If we fiddle around with our smartphones for another five years, we will be done,” Professor Joachim Schellenhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research stated in his presentation on climate change science. “The writing is on the wall everywhere. The vital organs of the earth may fail if we turn up the heat, starting with the big ice sheets.” In the absence of very wide ranging policies starting now, rising sea levels as well as ever higher temperatures rendering outdoor activities impossible in regions around the equator would lead to billions of climate refugees by the end of this century, “But governments have given up on climate change, they have outsourced to scientists, the UN, McKinsey, the Pope”.
Professor Nicholas Stern, Chair, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics, emphasised that in his 2006 report on the economics of climate change he had overestimated the costs of action and underestimated the costs in inaction. “What we see are extremely attractive alternatives ahead. What is not clear is the political will to get the arguments right. .We have to peak greenhouse gas emissions very soon, going to zero in the next 40 to 50 years from now, though big parts of the world must get to net zero much earlier. We must break the relationship of economic activity to damage to the environment.”
“Our human, physical, social and natural capital is depleted and must be rebuilt. Bringing down the cost of financial capital to invest in new technologies is key. Dirty technologies (such as internal combustion engines) are risky, governments are slowly moving to realise that they have to give them up”.
Presenting a new campaign for EU action, the Climate-Finance Pact, Pierre Larroutourou urged a 30-year Marshall Plan for climate action in Africa and Europe, financed both by public credit and additional corporation taxes. “The European Central Bank created €1 trillion to save the banks in 2008 – the same should be done for the climate. We call upon President Macron and Chancellor Merkel to launch this initiative before the end of the year”.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said that a new ‘ark of ambition’ was needed which would include addressing issues of poverty, hunger, equality, migration and human rights as well as environmental problems. “We need significant action before 2020, more finance, actions pledged are not sufficient to limit global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels, let alone 1.5C – as per the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Current. action is like trying to navigate a great flood in a rowboat”.
While action proposals from a series of working groups were read out to the final plenary, there was no formal annoncement launching a new global stakeholder action network as per indications from the Holy See in the opening session. Missing from the 30+ speaker lineup were leaders from the business, finance, trade union and farming sectors, although the Holy See has organised numerous closed encounters on these topics in recent years.