Civilisation will collapse unless we make some urgent changes, Sir David Attenborough told delegates from almost 200 nations at the UN Climate Summit (COP24) taking place in Katowice, Poland.
“Right now, we’re facing a man-made disaster of global scale,” Attenborough said on Monday, just two months after a UN report underlined the need to keep global warming below 1.5C degrees.
“Our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”
Among those addressing the Summit is the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
There is a moral imperative to act, for we all bear the responsibility to protect and to value creation.
The international community also has a moral responsibility to address climate change, he noted.
“The scientific consensus is rather consistent and it is that, since the second half of the last century, warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
“The Holy See has often stressed that there is a moral imperative to act, for we all bear the responsibility to protect and to value creation for the good of this and future generations,” he said.
Faith groups inspired by Laudato Si’ including Caritas Internationalis, CIDSE, and the Global Catholic Climate Movement are urging the Summit to ensure the 2015 Paris Agreement is implemented.
Caritas Internationalis’s delegation said the talks “will have to curb climate change for the coming decade and tackle its devastating effects on human life, ecosystems, food and water security.
“The cost of increased disasters and hazards is now unbearable for communities already facing poverty,” a delegate said.
CIDSE, an umbrella organisation for Catholic development agencies from Europe and North America, said “Our partners on the ground are already threatened by global warming.
“We are one human family and we all have a moral responsibility to stop climate change as we are all contributing to it.”
The Summit will run for two weeks until 15 December.
Source
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