Eight years after Laudato Sì, the pontiff released a new apostolic exhortation that slams the lack of courage in facing a problem that falls disproportionately on the shoulders of the poor. He critiques the dangerous "technocratic paradigm" and empty multilateralism, held up by the interests of the strongest. The papal appeal also concerns COP28 set to start in Dubai, which ought to come up with efficient, binding and easily verifiable decisions.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis today released a new apostolic exhortation, Laudate Deum, on the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, eight years after his encyclical Laudato Sì.

In it the pontiff notes that “our responses have not been adequate, while the world in which we live is collapsing and may be nearing the breaking point.” As the climate crisis gets worse, “We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes”.

In his letter to “all people of good will on the climate crisis”, he says that time has come to end “the irresponsible derision” that treats “this issue as something purely ecological, ‘green’, romantic, frequently subject to ridicule by economic interests.” Instead, it is a “human and social problem” with the poor already paying the highest price.

In the apostolic exhortation’s 73 paragraphs, Pope Francis dissects the issues, starting with the goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

At the current rate, this could be reached in 10 years, and some harm is already irreversible. Some creatures “have stopped being our companions along the way and have become instead our victims” (n.15).

Taking head-on those who minimise what is happening, Francis slams “certain dismissive and scarcely reasonable opinions that I encounter, even within the Catholic Church.” He does the same with those who blame the poor, especially since “the reality is that a low, richer percentage of the planet contaminates more than the poorest 50% of the total world population”.

To those who complain that reducing fossil fuel consumption would mean the loss of many jobs, he responds by inviting millions of people to look at what is already happening in other areas of the world due to rising seas, droughts or other events related to climate change. “This demands that politicians and business leaders should even now be concerning themselves with it.”

Turning to the heart of the problem, Francis looks at the "technocratic paradigm" mentioned already in the Encyclical Laudato Sì, which is based on the illusion that the evolution of technology and economic growth can automatically deliver something good. Such a paradigm is made even more dangerous by the new frontiers of artificial intelligence.

As for the rush to get elements like lithium or silicon, “the greater problem is the ideology underlying an obsession: to increase human power beyond anything imaginable, before which nonhuman reality is a mere resource at its disposal” (n.23).

This leads to the dangerous illusion that there can always be a technical solution that avoids challenging unsustainable lifestyles. And, for Pope Francis, it is quite clear that such a destructive paradigm will not be overcome through "a denial of the human being” (n.27).

It is not about dreaming of nature without man, but of reshaping an alliance that starts with ethics, dumping the logic “of maximum gain at minimal cost, disguised in terms of reasonableness, progress and illusory promises”.

This is a quintessentially political task, but nowadays political leaders and institutions are too weak. Regrettably, the opportunities provided by global crises such as the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and, more recently, COVID-19, “are being squandered”. For this reason, multilateralism should be reconfigured “taking into account the new world situation”.

Meanwhile, civil society groups around the world are developing ever closer ties, inspired by “the principle of subsidiarity [. . .] applied also to the global-local relationship” (n. 37).

At paragraph 43, Francis looks at the paralysis of the UN Security Council and other international bodies. “It is no longer helpful for us to support institutions in order to preserve the rights of the more powerful without caring for those of all,” he writes.

With respect to climate, he notes that COP28 is set to open in a few weeks in Dubai. Realising the paradox of such an event being held in the United Arab Emirates, a major exporter of fossil fuels, he notes nonetheless that the country “has made significant investments in renewable energy sources.”

More importantly, “To say that there is nothing to hope for would be suicidal, for it would mean exposing all humanity, especially the poorest, to the worst impacts of climate change” (n.53). Thus, “we can keep hoping that COP28 will allow for a decisive acceleration of energy transition, with effective commitments subject to ongoing monitoring.”

These are clearly political demands. Change cannot come from “individual efforts alone” since all “major political decisions” are made at “the national and international levels”. What is more, “there are no lasting changes without cultural changes” (n.70).

Hence, the pontiff thus urges believers to rediscover that “authentic faith not only gives strength to the human heart, but also transforms life, transfigures our goals and sheds light on our relationship to others and with creation as a whole” (n. 61).

Looking at the Judeo-Christian vision of the relationship between God and creation, he calls for a "situated anthropocentrism”; i.e. “Let us stop thinking [. . .] of human beings as autonomous, omnipotent and limitless, and begin to think of ourselves differently, in a humbler but more fruitful way” (n.68).

Lastly, Francis ends the exhortation saying: “’Praise God’ is the title of this letter. For when human beings claim to take God’s place, they become their own worst enemies.”

• vatican
• pope francis
• apostolic exhortation
• laudate deum
• climate change
• laudato sì