BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged nations at United Nations local weather talks to take “concrete actions” to cease local weather change that’s threatening the planet, telling them people are failing of their response to world warming and that God’s creation “is crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.”
In a video message performed for non secular leaders gathered in Belem, Leo stated nations had made progress, “but not enough.”
“One in three people live in great vulnerability because of these climate changes,” Leo stated. “To them, climate change is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity.”
His message got here because the talks have been shifting into their second week, with high-level ministers from governments around the globe arriving on the fringe of the Brazilian Amazon to hitch negotiations. Monday was dominated by speeches, with a number of leaders from World South nations giving emotional testimony on devastating prices of latest excessive climate and pure disasters.
Weak nations have pressed for extra ambition at these talks as world leaders have begun to acknowledge that Earth will virtually certainly go previous a hoped-for restrict — 1.5 levels Celsius (2.7 levels Fahrenheit) in Earth’s warming since pre-industrial instances. That was the goal set at these talks in 2015 within the landmark Paris settlement.
Scientists say along with lethal warmth, a warming environment results in extra frequent and lethal excessive climate akin to flooding, droughts, violent downpours and extra highly effective hurricanes.
Leo stated there’s nonetheless time to remain throughout the Paris Settlement, however not a lot.
“As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to act swiftly, with faith and prophecy, to protect the gift He entrusted to us,” he stated. And he added: “But we must be honest: it is not the Agreement that is failing, we are failing in our response. What is failing is the political will of some.”
Leo made historical past this 12 months by turning into the first American pope, and has embraced Pope Francis’ environmental legacy, together with dismissing local weather skeptics.
The U.S., the world’s second-largest polluter, is skipping the convention.
U.S. President Donald Trump referred to as local weather change “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” throughout a speech to the U.N. Normal Meeting in September.
U.N. local weather chief Simon Stiell stated Leo’s phrases “challenge us to keep choosing hope and action.” Leo “reminds us that the Paris Agreement is delivering progress and remains our strongest tool — but we must work together for more, and that bolder climate action is an investment in stronger and fairer economies, and more stable world,” Stiell stated.
David Gibson, director of the Heart on Faith and Tradition at Fordham College in New York, stated Leo is turning into the world’s most distinguished ethical chief towards local weather change.
“This message does stake Leo out as a voice for the rest of the world, especially the Southern Hemisphere where climate change is wreaking havoc with the vulnerable in Asia, Africa and Latin America,” stated Gibson.
And he stated it exhibits that Leo, who spent a long time working as a missionary in Peru and is a naturalized Peruvian citizen, “has a Latin American heart and voice.”
The Laudato Si’ Motion, a Catholic local weather motion that takes its identify from a 2015 encyclical through which Pope Francis referred to as for local weather motion, referred to as Leo’s message “a profound moral intervention.”
“He reminds the world that creation is crying out and that vulnerable communities cannot be pushed aside. “His voice cuts through the noise of negotiations and calls leaders back to what truly matters: our shared humanity and the urgent duty to act with courage, compassion, and justice,” the group’s govt director, Lorna Gold, stated.
The Related Press’ local weather and environmental protection receives monetary help from a number of non-public foundations. AP is solely liable for all content material. Discover AP’s requirements for working with philanthropies, a listing of supporters and funded protection areas at AP.org. This story was produced as a part of the 2025 Local weather Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Community and the Stanley Heart for Peace and Safety.
