Photo: Mazur/catholicnews.org.uk
In the same week as the climate change mass lobby of Parliament, Pope Francis has issued his encyclical focused on environmental issues and other faith leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, have signed the Lambeth Declaration 2015 calling for urgent action to tackle climate change.
Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ challenges the world to act on climate change, growing global inequality and the destruction of nature, which he says have resulted from putting profit and economic growth above all other considerations. The encyclical challenges us to consider the kind of world we want to leave to those who come after us.
Laudato Si’ can be downloaded from the Catholic Church in England Wales and from CAFOD.
The Lambeth Declaration 2015, signed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and other faith leaders in the UK, warns that world leaders must agree to reduce emissions to avoid average temperatures rising beyond 2⁰C, widely considered to be the threshold above which it is considered that the impacts of climate change will be most severe. It highlights that climate change has already hit the poorest of the world hardest and urgent action is needed now to protect future generations. The original Declaration was hosted by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and signed by faith leaders in 2009 ahead of the Climate Summit in Copenhagen.
Faith leaders signing the declaration have pledged to fast and pray for the success of key international negotiations over climate change.
You can read the full declaration on the Church of England website.
