Pope Francis urged the countries on Tuesday to fight against global warming as per the 2015 Paris climate accord, focussing on issues that figure in the US Presidential race.
The modern society had taken the planet beyond the limits and the time to mend the emergency of the climate was running out, he mentioned. "Our constant demand for growth and an endless cycle of production and consumption are exhausting the natural world," Francis stated. "Forests are leached, topsoil erodes, fields fail, deserts advance, seas acidify and storms intensify. Creation is groaning!".
Pope Francis on Global Warming
He made his call in a message on the day Christian Churches mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. "We need to do everything in our capacity to limit global average temperature rise under the threshold of 1.5°C enshrined in the Paris Climate Agreement, for going beyond that will prove catastrophic, especially for poor communities around the world," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has put in motion a process to remove the United States, the world's No. 2 emitter of greenhouse gases behind China, from the agreement that brought countries together to mitigate global warming, saying it was too costly. His challenger for the presidency, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, has said he will return the United States to a leadership role on climate change, assertively re-entering the nation in future climate negotiations to advance the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Pope Francis said biodiversity loss, climate disasters, and the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the poor and vulnerable were all a "wakeup call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption".
(With agency inputs)
