气候变化需要“真正的变化”，支持达成“公正和具有法律约束力的”协议
梵蒂冈城（亚洲新闻）—“巴黎气候变化问题大会”应该实现一个“真正的变化”，从而达成一个“公正和具有法律约束力”的协议，“充分意识到穷人和弱势群体基本权利的社会视角”去审视这一问题；展示出“不仅是技术方面，而首先应该是伦理道德的问题”，环境是“集体利益、全人类的财产和所有人的责任”。这是今天世界各国主教团枢机、宗主教、主教们联合致函十一月三十日至十二月十一日召开的“巴黎气候变化问题大会”的呼吁书。
文件中提出了“十点政治建议”，实质上是要求重新定义我们对发展与成长的定义、包括生活方式。因为被危害的环境导致了“人文和社会恶果”。由此，要求“全面的环保概念”、“将关注倾听地球上许多穷人呐喊放在中心的社会正义”。
以下为呼吁全文，签名的有亚洲主教团联盟主席，印度孟买总主教奥斯瓦尔多∙格拉齐亚斯枢机；欧洲的有主教会议秘书长，布达佩斯总主教彼得∙埃尔多枢机、德国慕尼黑总主教马克思枢机、圣座拉丁美洲委员会主席鲁本∙戈迈兹枢机、黎巴嫩马罗尼团体宗主教拉伊枢机、非洲和马达加斯加主教团主席贾布瑞∙蒙比林吉枢机；大洋洲莫尔兹比港里巴特总主教等。
APPEAL TO COP 21 NEGOTIATING PARTIES
The following appeal is issued by Cardinals, Patriarchs and Bishops from across the globe representing the continental groupings of national episcopal conferences. It is addressed to those negotiating the COP 21 in Paris and it calls on them to work toward the approval of a fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement.
Representing the Catholic Church from the five continents, we Cardinals, Patriarchs and Bishops have come together to express, on our own behalf and on behalf of the people for whom we care, the widely-held hope that a just and legally binding climate agreement will emerge from the negotiations of the COP 21 in Paris. We advance a ten-point policy proposal, drawing on the concrete experience of people across the continents, and linking climate change to social injustice and the social exclusion of the poorest and most vulnerable of our citizens.
Climate Change: challenges and opportunities
In his encyclical letter, Laudato si’ (LS), addressed ‘to every person living on this planet’ (LS 3), Pope Francis claims that ‘climate change represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity today’ (LS 25). The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all (LS 23).
Whether believers or not, we are agreed today that the earth is essentially a shared inheritance, whose fruits are meant to benefit everyone. For believers, this becomes a question of fidelity to the Creator, since God created the world for everyone. Hence every ecological approach needs to incorporate a social perspective which takes into account the fundamental rights of the poor and the underprivileged (LS 93).
Damage to climate and environment has enormous repercussions. The problem arising from the dramatic acceleration of climatic change is global in its effects. It challenges us to re- define our notions of growth and progress. It poses a lifestyle question. It is imperative that we find a solution that is consensual, because of the scale and global nature of the climate’s impact, it invites a solidarity that is universal, a solidarity that is ‘intergenerational’ and ‘intra-generational’. (LS 13, 14, 162)
The Pope defines our world as ‘our common home’ and, in the exercise of our stewardship, we must keep in mind the human and social degradation which is a consequence of a damaged environment. We call for an integral ecological approach, we call for social justice to be placed centre stage ‘so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor’ (LS 49).
Sustainable development must include the poor
While deploring the dramatic impact of rapid climate change on sea levels, extreme weather events, deteriorating ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity, the Church is also witness to how climate change is affecting vulnerable communities and peoples, greatly to their disadvantage. Pope Francis draws our attention to the irreparable impact of unrestrained climate change in many developing countries across the world. Moreover, in his address to the United Nations the Pope said the misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion.
Courageous Leaders seeking enforceable agreements
The building and maintenance of a sustainable common home requires courageous and imaginative political leadership. Legal frameworks are required which clearly establish boundaries and ensure the protection of the ecosystem (LS 53).
Reliable scientific evidence suggests that accelerated climate change is the result of unrestrained human activity, working to a particular model of progress and development, and that excessive reliance on fossil fuels is primarily responsible. The Pope and Catholic Bishops from five continents, sensitive to the damage caused, appeal for a drastic reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide and other toxic gases.
We join the Holy Father in pleading for a major break-through in Paris, for a comprehensive and transformational agreement supported by all based on principles of solidarity, justice and participation.2 This agreement must put the common good ahead of national interests. It is essential too that the negotiations result in an enforceable agreement that protects our common home and all its inhabitants.
We, Cardinals, Patriarchs and Bishops, issue a general call and make ten specific policy proposals. We call on COP 21 to forge an international agreement to limit a global temperature increase to within those parameters currently suggested from within the global scientific community to avoid catastrophic climatic impacts, especially on the poorest and most vulnerable communities. There is, we agree, a common but also differentiated responsibility of all nations. Different countries have reached a different stage on the development spectrum. The need to work together in a common endeavour is imperative.
Our ten calls:
1. to keep in mind not only the technical but particularly the ethical and moral dimensions of climate change as indicated in Article 3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
2. to accept that climate and atmosphere are global common goods that are belonging to all and meant for all.
3. to adopt a fair, transformational and legally binding global agreement based on our vision of the world that recognises the need to live in harmony with nature, and to guarantee the fulfilment of human rights for all, including those of Indigenous Peoples, women, youth and workers.
4. to strongly limit a global temperature increase and to set a goal for complete decarbonisation by mid-century, in order to protect frontline communities suffering from the impacts of climate change, such as those in the Pacific Islands and in coastal regions.
• to ensure that the temperature threshold is enshrined in a legally binding global agreement, with ambitious mitigation commitments and actions from all countries recognising their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDRRC), based on equity principles, historical responsibilities, and the right to sustainable development.
• to secure that the emissions reductions by governments are in line with the decarbonisation goal, governments need to undertake periodic reviews of the pledges they make and of the ambition they show. And to be successful these reviews need also to be based on science and equity and shall be mandatory.
5. to develop new models of development and lifestyles that are climate compatible, address inequality and bring people out of poverty. Central to this is to put an end to the fossil fuel era, phasing out fossil fuel emissions, including emissions from military, aviation and shipping, and providing affordable, reliable and safe renewable energy access for all.
6. to ensure people’s access to water and to land for climate resilient and sustainable food systems, which give priority to people driven solutions rather than profits.
7. to ensure inclusion and participation of the poorest, most vulnerable and impacted at all levels of the decision-making process.
8. to ensure that the 2015 agreement delivers an adaptation approach that adequately responds to the immediate needs of the most vulnerable communities and builds on local alternatives.
9. to recognise that adaptation needs are contingent on the success of mitigation measures taken. Those responsible for climate change have responsibilities to assist the most vulnerable in adapting and managing loss and damage and to share the necessary technology and knowhow.
10. to provide clear roadmaps on how countries will meet the provision of predictable, consistent, and additional finance commitments, ensuring a balanced financing of mitigation actions and adaptation needs.
All this would call for serious ecological awareness and education (LS 202-215).
Prayer for the Earth
God of love, teach us to care for this world our common home. Inspire government leaders as they gather in Paris:
− to listen to and heed the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor;
− to be united in heart and mind in responding courageously;
− to seek the common good and protect the beautiful earthly garden you have created for us, for all our brothers and sisters, for all generations to come.
Amen.
11/02/2005
15/04/2021 16:17
29/10/2020 14:18
14/02/2017 17:12
27/07/2016 18:43
