Pope Francis cast shame onto world leaders on Wednesday for their inability to meet climate change targets in a written papal document titled, Praise God.
The exhortation warned that the world must reach climate change targets before God’s increasingly warming creation reaches a “point of no return.”
In 2015, Pope Francis released his encyclical on the environment, in which he raised alarm regarding the “irreversible” damage the planet has endured and his regret that the impact of these changes will negatively affect the most poor and vulnerable throughout the world.
“We are now unable to halt the enormous damage we have caused. We barely have time to prevent even more tragic damage,” wrote Francis.
Praise God, which was released on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, is full of citations which reference numerous climate reports from NASA and the UN, far more than the scripture itself.
The document aims to push negotiations to meet climate targets for the next session of UN talks regarding the issue that are scheduled to take place on Nov. 30 in Dubai.
Catholic leaders from around the world will also be gathering at the Vatican to discuss the future of the church in what is known as Synod, a closed-door meeting that lasts for three weeks.
Francis blamed the United States for having double the per capita emissions as China and a rate that is seven times higher than that of the average underdeveloped nation.
He said that while people can make a difference on an individual level, “we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”
The Pope said there is a moral argument for transitioning away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy that is “efficient, obligatory and readily monitored.”
“What is being asked of us is nothing other than a certain responsibility for the legacy we will leave behind, once we pass from this world,” said Francis.
Francis acknowledged that while “certain apocalyptic diagnoses” may not be inevitable, he said that choosing not to act at all, is no longer an option.
“Small changes can cause greater ones, unforeseen and perhaps already irreversible, due to factors of inertia,” said Francis. “This would end up precipitating a cascade of events having a snowball effect. In such cases, it is always too late, since no intervention will be able to halt a process once begun.”
The Paris Agreement, which was signed by a number of countries around the world in 2015, pledged to reduce climate warming to 1.5 C or a minimum of 2 C since before the industrial revolution.
Since the mid-1800s, the planet has risen in warmth by 1.1 C.
The Pope said that it is now clear that the target of the Paris Agreement will not be met as temperatures will soon warm to 3 C.
“Even if we do not reach this point of no return, it is certain that the consequences would be disastrous and precipitous measures would have to be taken, at enormous cost and with grave and intolerable economic and social effects,” warned Francis.
