Pope Francis urged the global community to harness nature’s power to achieve climate resilience, denouncing short-term greed as a major obstacle during a Vatican summit on the climate crisis.
Speaking on the second day of the event hosted by the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences, the pontiff emphasized the worsening climate data and the urgent need to protect both people and nature.
He challenged political leaders, asking if their efforts promote a “culture of life” or a “culture of death.”
“The wealthier nations, around 1 billion people, produce more than half the heat-trapping pollutants. On the contrary, the 3 billion poorer people contribute less than 10%, yet they suffer 75% of the resulting damage,” the pope said.
Pope Francis condemned environmental destruction as both an offense against God and a “structural sin” endangering humanity.
He stressed that the issues of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental decay, global disparities, food insecurity, and threats to human dignity require urgent and collective action to protect the world’s poor, especially women and children.
“Each of these issues must be addressed urgently and collectively in order to safeguard the world’s poor, especially women and children, who bear a disproportionate burden,” he said. These women, he noted, are not just victims but also a “powerful force for resilience and adaptation.”
The Pope criticized the mechanisms of global and national politics that hinder actions to protect the vulnerable from climate change.
“An orderly progress is being held back by the greedy pursuit of short-term gains by polluting industries and by the spread of disinformation, which generates confusion and obstructs collective efforts for a change in course,” he said.
The resulting environmental degradation has led to the dissolution of communities, forced displacement of families, and millions of deaths annually due to atmospheric pollution.
He also highlighted that around 3.5 billion people are vulnerable to climate change, increasing their risk of migration and perilous journeys.
Pope Francis joined summit participants in calling for a “universal approach and resolute activity” to shift political directions and address the crisis.
He emphasized the necessity of halving the global warming rate over the next 25 years and leveraging nature’s power to remove substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
