In his speech at the United Nations Conference taking place in Baku, the Vatican Secretary of State reiterated Pope Francis’ call for the Jubilee of 2025: “There is a need for a new international financial architecture that also truly guarantees the most poor and vulnerable to climate catastrophes, low-carbon development pathways.
Baku (/Agencies) – “When talking about climate financing, it is important to remember that ecological debt and external debt are two sides of the same coin, which mortgage the future,” said today the Secretary of the Vatican State, Card. Pietro Parolin, on behalf of Pope Francis, speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Addressing the representatives of countries from around the world gathered for a debate that includes among its main topics the division of the financial burdens necessary at a global level for adaptation strategies to climate change, Card. Parolin said efforts must be made to “find solutions that do not further compromise the development capacity of many countries that are already saddled with crippling economic debt.” In this sense, the Vatican Secretary of State cited the call of Pope Francis in the bull Spes non confundit that was published with a view to the now imminent Jubilee of 2025.
May the richest countries – the pontiff urges in this document – “recognize the seriousness of so many decisions made and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to pay them off. More than a question of magnanimity, it is a question of justice, aggravated today by a new form of inequality of which we have become aware: there is, in fact, a true “ecological debt”, especially between the North and the South, related to trade imbalances with ecological consequences, as well as the disproportionate use of natural resources that some countries have historically made”.
In this sense, Card. Parolin called at COP29 for “a new international financial architecture, which can truly guarantee all countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable to climate catastrophes, development paths with low carbon emissions and a high level of participation, that allow everyone to reach their full potential and see their dignity respected.
The premise for this, he noted, is the awareness that “the protection of creation is one of the most urgent issues of our time” and that “selfishness – individual, national and power groups – feeds a climate of mistrust and division that does not respond to the needs of an interdependent world, in which we must act and live as members of a single family that inhabits the same interconnected global village.”
“We cannot pass by and look the other way – Card continued saying. Parolin-. Indifference is complicit in injustice. Therefore, I appeal so that, thinking about the common good, we can unmask the mechanisms of self-justification that so often paralyze us. For an ambitious agreement, for every initiative and process aimed at truly inclusive development – he concluded – I assure you of my support and that of the Holy Father to provide an effective service to humanity, so that we can all assume the responsibility of safeguarding not only not our future, but everyone’s.”
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