The Holy See is now participating as a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Change’s conversations for the first time. For a long time it has been only a Permanent Observer State, but from now onwards it can make political decisions and not just moral guidelines as it has always been so far. This is of great value for the current moment of ecological urgency in which we find ourselves.
Catholics are present not only through the Vatican Secretariat of State but also as civil society for a long time, expressed in many civil social organizations such as the Laudato Si’ Movement, Caritas Internationalis, the Carmelite NGO, UNANIMA, IYCS, IMCS Pax Romana, VIVAT Internationalis, and many others.
As Pope Francis says in Spanish: “¡Haced ruido!”, so we have been making our voice heard by the National Delegates and persuaded them in their negotiations. It is about bringing the Catholic narrative and the moral principles of global justice and solidarity to the issue of climate change.
We should all know that the Catholic narrative is related to the financing of Loss and Damage (L&D), the financing of just transition in terms of alternative energies, and the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels.
This year, the Carmelite NGO delegates are Mpumi Mbenenge from South Africa and Father Eduardo Agosta, in collaboration with the Laudato Si’ Movement and the Vatican Delegation. Mpumi participated virtually during the first week of the COP. Eduardo did it during the second week. In future posts you will learn more about their activities and experiences in this COP 27.
All in all, #COP27 is coming to an end. The current draft document shows few changes compared to the Glasgow one, – as if it is still a copy & paste – regarding the elimination of fossil fuels and the financing of the most vulnerable, although the final document may bring some interesting news as we have heard these days… let’s wait a bit more to see what happens.
