Vatican: Efforts go forward even without the U.S.
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican stressed Thursday that the movement to combat climate change is unstoppable and worldwide, although it said it would welcome a U.S. return to the Paris agreement.
The Holy See’s foreign minister, Monsignor Paul Gallagher, at a news conference marking five years since Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’” decrying human damage to the environment, insisted that “humanity will not be blown off course” by any one player’s decision.
Last year, President Trump’s administration formally began the process to exit the climate deal, in which nearly 200 nations pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and assist poor nations struggling with the consequences of a warming Earth.
“We do believe that U.S. engagement in many fields is vital to the future of the world’s environment,” Gallagher said in response to a question about the U.S. pullout.
Still, as efforts on climate change go, “it’s an irresistible world movement, a social movement, a movement of faith,” and so “humanity will not be blown of course by any decision” to withdraw from the accords, he said.
The current pandemic has shown how problems such as climate change “don’t respect borders,” Gallagher said. The COVID19 outbreak, devastating in many places in the world, “has highlighted the many, many areas in which we have a lot of work to do.”
He cited social justice issues “across the board,” including for indigenous peoples.
“The church will be encouraging states and governments and the church itself to work on these issues,” said Gallagher, one of the Holy See’s top officials.
In the encyclical and in many public speeches, Francis has repeatedly noted that the poor suffer greatly due to climate change and pollution.
In a 227page document issued on Thursday to mark the five years since the encyclical’s publication, the Vatican said the pope’s impassioned appeal to protect nature is increasingly urgent as the global pandemic alters lifestyles and makes painfully plain the fragility of life.