Pope Francis calls COP29 participants “to demonstrate that there is an international community ready to overcome particularisms and place the good of humanity and our common home at the center”in a message read Wednesday, November 13, by his representative in Baku (Azerbaijan), Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
“Selfishness – individual, national and power groups – fuels a climate of distrust and division that does not meet the needs of an interdependent world,” lamented the pope, worried that this 29th conference is taking place in a context marked by “a growing disillusionment with multilateral institutions and dangerous tendencies to build walls.”
A few days after Donald Trump’s victory in the American election, COP29 opened in a climate of uncertainty and in the absence of several important heads of state: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, but also Emmanuel Macron or even the Brazilian Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“The scientific data available to us allows no further delay and clearly shows that the preservation of creation is one of the most urgent issues of our time,” alarms the Bishop of Rome. The world must aim for net zero CO2 emissions by the end of the 2030s to hope to contain global warming to 1.5°C, compared to the end of the 19th century. The author of the encyclical Praised yes also recalled the link between the issue of environmental protection and “the preservation of peace”.
An “ecological debt” towards the South
In his message, Francis reiterated his call to cancel the debt of the poorest countries, as he did last May in his bubble Hope does not disappoint (“hope does not disappoint”), asking that the jubilee year 2025 be an opportunity to “forget the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them”.
“More than a question of generosity, it is a question of justice”addressed the Pope to the participants in the Baku conference, considering that today there is a real “ecological debt” from North to South, “linked to trade imbalances with environmental effects and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods”.
This question of financing the fight against global warming is one of the most important subjects of this COP29, while the needs are estimated at several trillion dollars.
Francis thus called for “seek a new international financial architecture that can truly guarantee all countries, in particular the poorest and those most vulnerable to climate disasters, development paths that are both low-carbon and highly shared.”
Encouraging to “unmask the self-justification mechanisms that so often paralyze us”the pope calls for his wishes “an ambitious agreement” on the climate. “The time is no longer for indifference, he insists. We cannot wash our hands of it with distance, carelessness, disinterest. This is the real challenge of our century. »
