There are four “perverse attitudes” creating obstacles to research and dialogue on climate change, says Pope Francis, and they are denial, indifference, resignation and trust in solutions that are simply inadequate.
The pope said this late lest week, in a message to COP23, the 23rd annual conference in Bonn, Germany, of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
In the face of environmental challenges, the Holy Father called for countries to abandon “perverse attitudes” such as denial and indifference.
In order to overcome environmental issues, the pope said, we must avoid these “four perverse attitudes, which certainly do not help honest research or sincere and productive dialogue on building the future of our planet: denial, indifference, resignation and trust in inadequate” technical and economic solutions.
On the contrary, Francis insisted that it is necessary to “pay attention to education and lifestyles based on an integral ecology.”
Only this approach, he said, is capable of “taking on a vision of honest research and open dialogue where the various dimensions of the Paris Agreement are intertwined.”
All signatories to the climate agreement, signed in Paris in 2015, pledged to limit global warming less than 2 degrees Celsius. However, no concrete regulations have been agreed upon to achieve this goal. Last June 1, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced the withdrawal of his country from the Paris agreement.
Organized in Bonn by the Republic of Fiji, the COP23 took place on November 6-17.