ROME — The Vatican delegation to the COP26 Climate Change Conference released a statement Monday urging greater financial investment from wealthy nations to battle global warming.
“The ambitious commitments made by States to limit the rise of the global average temperature to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels and to provide the needed financial resources to do so are promising and indeed essential for the survival of the most vulnerable communities,” the statement reads.
The Vatican delegation said that financial resources made available for this campaign “are fundamental for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement, will need to be strengthened and renewed in order to achieve these goals.”
The text states that the Vatican hopes progress will be made “with developed countries taking the lead.” It adds, “Pope Francis has clearly emphasized the ecological debt and the solidarity that industrialized countries owe to the poor.”
“The issue of loss and damage is particularly critical to those communities that are most vulnerable to climate change,” the document states, while urging “a genuine sense of responsibility towards present and future generations, as well as the care of our common home, and that these decisions may truly respond to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.”
“Time is running out: this occasion must not be wasted,” the text concludes, citing the pope’s letter to the Catholics of Scotland.
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