Unified and resolute approach is critical to combat climate crisis

Caritas is sending a strong message to delegates as they begin meeting in Madrid for COP25, the 25th annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The message is simple. We must work together. The world is facing countries taking individual action – at the exact time where a unified and resolute approach to combatting the climate crisis is critical.

Caritas calls on all parties to stand up together for the international system set up by the United Nations and to take decisions at COP25 which ensure care for the environment, promote social justice and safeguard human rights by protecting people who are most vulnerable to climate change.

A Caritas delegation is at COP25 with member organizations from Peru, the United Kingdom, France, Poland and Spain, representing the Caritas family.

Just over a month ago, the unprecedented Synod on the Amazon ended at the Vatican. Now, the global Catholic community wants to see another major conference seriously considering the future of our planet and of humanity.

“It is a difficult moment for the fight against climate change,” said Adriana Opromolla, Food Security and Climate Change advocacy officer at Caritas Internationalis. “Cooperation between countries is the only way to save this critical situation. We saw only in September at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Summit, that the level of necessary ambition was lacking to keep a rise in temperature below 1.5 degrees centigrade. COP25 is an opportunity to scale up this ambition.”

The Caritas Confederation is participating at COP25 in the spirit of the Synod on the Amazon, with a call for unity, solidarity, justice and a special focus on Latin America and on indigenous peoples.

The shocking magnitude of the recent fires in the Amazon has focused attention on the loss of ecosystems there and in other regions. Affected communities have suffered terrible loss and damage to their land and livelihoods. Some have been displaced.

“Caritas wants governments to be serious and generous at COP25 when they review the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage to make it fully operational, especially by providing adequate finance for loss and damage, which should be additional to funding for adaptation projects,” said Ms. Opromolla.

Caritas is calling for robust rules to be adopted which ensure transparent and fair counting of carbon emissions reductions, and for proper participation for the communities concerned. Caritas is also calling for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples in the realization of projects to reduce emissions.

Original source: Caritas
Published on 04 December 2019