by JOHN THAVIS
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI urged international leaders to reach a credible agreement on climate change, keeping in mind the needs of the poor and of future generations.
The Pope made the remarks at his noon blessing at the Vatican on November 27, the day before officials from 194 countries were to begin meeting in Durban, South Africa, to discuss the next steps in reducing greenhouse gases and stopping global temperatures from rising.
“I hope that all members of the international community can agree on a responsible, credible and supportive response to this worrisome and complex phenomenon, keeping in mind the needs of the poorest populations and of future generations,” the Pope said.
The meeting, which runs until December 9, is the latest in a series to consider follow-up action to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which obligated industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a specific amount. The Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012.
The goal of the talks organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is to cut greenhouse gases by 50 per cent by 2050 and prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius.
Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, president of Caritas Internationalis, was leading a 20-person Caritas delegation to the Durban talks to press for an agreement on behalf of poor countries that have been severely impacted by climate change.
Before leaving for Durban, Cardinal Rodriguez took several thousand young Italian members of a Franciscan environmental group to the Vatican for a lively encounter with the Pope.
The Pope told them that the Church’s teaching on the environment follows from the principle that men and women are collaborators with God and his creation. “In fact, it is by now evident that there is no good future for humanity or for the earth unless we educate everyone towards a style of life that is more responsible toward the created world,” he said.
He said education towards environmental responsibility must begin in families and schools and must reflect the Church’s teaching that respect for the human being — in all stages of life — goes hand in hand with respect for nature.
In a pastoral letter, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference asked people to urge South Africa’s government, which is chairing the Durban meeting, to support resolutions “based not on immediate economic needs only, but on the survival needs of future generations”.
The bishops also called on people “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using your own properties productively to grow trees that will absorb carbon dioxide, to grow vegetables and crops organically to reduce the use of chemical-based fertilisers, and to share the food thus grown with the hungry and malnourished”.