| International News

In a Sept. 24 statement to the U.N. General Assembly session on climate change entitled “The future is in our hands: Addressing the leadership challenge of climate change,” Msgr. Piero Parolin, Vatican undersecretary for relations with states, stressed that, despite various interpretations, the “best scientific assessments” have established a clear link between human activity and global warming, which requires the adoption of a “coordinated, effective and prompt international political strategy.”

Yet, he cautioned that interpretation of scientific data should not be “exaggerated nor minimized” for political or ideological gain.

The issue of climate change is a “complex question,” he said, noting that “no country alone can solve the problems related to our common environment.”

The Vatican sees an “underlying moral imperative that all, without exception, have a grave responsibility to protect the environment,” Msgr. Parolin said.

He called “fundamentally reckless” the belief that the world’s resources should be fully exploited.

Yet he also pointed to “the other extreme” of “those who hold up the earth as the only good and would characterize humanity as an irredeemable threat to the earth.” “We strongly believe,” he said of the Vatican U.N. delegation, “that such assertions would place human beings and their needs at the service of an inhuman ecology.”

These and other similar, though less extreme positions, he said, are impediments to efforts to take action to reduce the extent of global warming, to minimize its effects and to “safeguarding of our common future.”

A coordinated effort should identify ways and means that are “economically accessible, enhance sustainable development and foster a healthy environment,” Msgr. Parolin. He added that special account needs to be taken for developing nations and their people that “are particularly vulnerable to the adverse consequences of climate change.”

Target young people through educational efforts, he urged, “to change inbred, selfish attitudes towards consumption and exploitation of natural resources.”

Governmental policy should be directed, he stressed to giving economic incentives to encourage the further development of “more environmentally friendly technologies,” such as those involved in energy production and efficiency.

He criticized the pace of implementation of international agreements. “Unless our words are matched with effective action and accountability, we would do little to avert a bleak future and may find ourselves gathering again not too long from now to lament another collective failure.”

The Vatican believes that the U.N. needs to live up to its commitment on climate change. U.N. member “states have a shared ‘responsibility to protect’ the world’s climate” and “our planet and ensure that present and future generations be able to live in a healthy and safe environment.”

In an May 10 statement to the U.N. Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Sustainable Development on “Turning Political Commitments into Action, Working together in Partnership,” Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio of the Holy See’s permanent mission to the U.N., the world community must address the threat posed by global warming and build more sustainable economies or face the continued drift toward tensions, conflicts and a crisis in the very existence of peoples.

He stressed that the scientific evidence for global warming and mankind’s role in the increase of greenhouse gasses “becomes ever more unimpeachable” and its effects already impacting the world community.

“The consequences of climate change are being felt not only in the environment, but in the entire socio-economic system, Archbishop Migliore said, noting that “such activity has a profound relevance, not just for the environment, but in ethical, economic, social and political terms as well.”

Global warming, he said, “will impact first and foremost the poorest and weakest who, even if they are among the least responsible for global warming, are the most vulnerable because they have limited resources or live in areas at greater risk.”

The issues surrounding climate change are far-reaching, the Vatican nuncio said, pointing to the connection between it and the drive to acquire and consume energy and water resources and protecting human health and the environment.

“The earth is our common heritage and we have a grave and far-reaching responsibility to ourselves and to future generations,” he said.

The international community, Archbishop Migliore said, must come to terms to establish a “common, global, long-term energy strategy, capable of satisfying legitimate short- and medium-term energy requirements, ensuring energy security, protecting human health and the environment and establishing precise commitments to address ...