Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga says failure at UN climate talks in Durban is a “moral apartheid” that cannot be allowed to happen.
“Just as South Africa’s Apartheid era policies sought divisions along race lines, today the world’s environment and energy policies divide man from nature,” said the Cardinal.
Midway through the Climate Change Conference, the main issue still on the table is the extension of the Kyoto protocol.
The world’s two biggest emitters and major economies, China and the United States, are not signatories of the protocol, which sets legal limits on green house gas emissions, have yet to commit to agreeing to a binding deal.
“How long will countless people have to go on dying before adequate decisions are taken?” Rodriguez said during his Sunday homily.
“It’s true that in faith we wait ‘for the new heavens and the new earth’ but this does not mean indifference or complicity with those who destroy this land where we live,” he added.
“‘Living holy and saintly lives means living in justice with creation and the environment, and especially with the poor people who are the primary victims of this serious problem.”
The Cardinal urged the Durban Climate Change Conference not to remain as a voice silenced by economic power.
Concluding his homily Rodriguez challenging delegates to make the Conference a success and the world a better place. “May this conference be a success for global solidarity, and embody a desire to make a better world for future generations.”
Sources
- Vatican Radio
- Image CNS
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News category: World.
