(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis and mayors from cities across the globe have signed a common declaration of intent to combat environmental damage and human trafficking.
The signing of the document followed a meeting Tuesday afternoon in the Vatican between the Pope and the mayors who are attending a two-day workshop entitled “Modern Slavery and Climate Change” organized by the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences.
Please find below the full text of the common declaration:
We the undersigned have assembled at the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences to address two inter-connected dramatic emergencies: human-induced climate change, and social exdusion in the extreme forms of radical poverty, modern slavery and human trafficking, We join together from many cultures and walks of life, reflecting humanity’s shared yearning for prosperity, justice and environmental sustainability peace, happiness.
On the basis of the encyclical Laudato si’, we have considered the over-whelming scientific evidence regarding human-induced climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the vulnerability of the poor to economic, social and environmental disasters.
In the face of the emergencies attributable to human-induced climate change, social exclusion, and extreme poverty, we join together to declare the following:
Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity.
In this core moral space, cities play a very vital role. All of our cultural traditions uphold the inherent dignity and social responsibility of every individual and the related common good of all humanity. They affirm the beauty, wonder and inherent goodness of the natural world, and appreciate that it is a precious gift entrusted to our common care, making it our moral duty to steward rather than ravage the garden that is our “common home”.
In spite of having a minimal role in the disruption of the climate, the poor and excluded face dire threats from human-induced climate change, including the increased frequency of droughts, extreme storms, heat waves, and rising sea levels. Today humanity has the technological instruments, the financial resources and the know-how to reverse climate change while also ending extreme poverty, through the application of sustainable development solutions, including the adoption of low-carbon energy systems supported by information and communications technologies.
The financing of sustainable development, including the effective control of human-induced climate change, should be bolstered through new incentives for the transition towards low-carbon and renewable energy, and through the relentless pursuit of peace, which also will enable a shift of public financing from military spending to urgent investments for sustainable development.
The world should take note that the climate summit in Paris later this year (COP21) may be the last effective opportunity to negotiate arrangements that keep human-induced warming below 2°C, and aim to stay well below 2°C for safety, yet the current trajectory may well reach a devastating 4°C or higher. Political leaders of all UN member States have a special responsibility to agree at COP21 to a bold climate agreement that confines global warming to a limit safe for humanity, while protecting the poor and the vulnerable from ongoing climate change that gravely endangers their lives. The high-income countries should help to finance the costs of climate-change mitigation in low-income countries as the high-income countries have promised to do.
Climate-change mitigation will require a rapid transformation to a world powered by renewable and other low-carbon energy and the sustainable management of ecosystems. These transformations should be carried out in the context of globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals, consistent with ending extreme poverty; ensuring universal access to healthcare, quality education, safe water, and sustainable energy; and cooperating to end human trafficking and all forms of modern slavery.
As mayors we commit ourselves to building, in our cities and urban settlements, the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reducing their exposure to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters, which foster human trafficking and dangerous forced migration.
At the same time, we commit ourselves to ending abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of modern slavery, which are crimes against humanity, including forced labor and prostitution, organ trafficking, and domestic servitude; and to developing national resettle ment and reintegration programs that avoid the involuntary repatriation of trafficked persons (cf. PASS’s revision of UN Sustainable Development Goals, n. 16.2).
We want our cities and urban settlements to become ever more socially inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (cf. UN Sustainable Development Goals, n. 11). All sectors and stakeholders must do their part, a pledge that we fully commit ourselves to in our capacities as mayors and individuals.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Holy See delegation to the United Nations says it believes the draft outcome document for the UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda “moves the international community further in the right direction, toward achieving a universal, ambitious and transformative agenda that sets out to end poverty and to achieve sustainable development for humanity and the planet.”
The full text of the Intervention of the Holy See can be found below:
Intervention of the Holy See
Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
General Statement on the Final Draft, Post-2015 Development Agenda
New York, 20 July 2015
Distinguished Co-facilitators,
My delegation would like to thank you for your efforts in producing the most recent version of the draft outcome document for the UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
We believe that this draft moves the international community further in the right direction, toward achieving a universal, ambitious, and transformative agenda that sets out to end poverty and to achieve sustainable development for humanity and the planet.
On the preamble and declaration, my delegation welcomes the recognition that poverty eradication is the greatest global challenge and that it is resolved to free humanity from the tyranny of poverty in all of its forms. We are also pleased that both the preamble and the declaration make clear that one of the critical measures of success will be that nobody will be left behind, for indeed, this agenda will not be achieved unless it addresses the needs of all nations and people s, and in particular the poor and most vulnerable.
However, my delegation is of the view that both the preamble and declaration could speak more directly on the importance of the integration and the indivisibility of the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. One pillar certainly cannot be addressed in isolation from another.
For example, preference for the protection of the environment or economic growth, without first considering the dignity of the human person and the common good of society as a whole, would be contrary to the very nature of the agenda.
As Pope Francis pointed out in his recent encyclical Laudato si’ , “strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” The holistic approach taken by the agenda is an important step forward from an eventual siloed approach.
Distinguished Co-facilitators,
Regarding the SDGs and targets, my delegation is of the view that it should include the Chapeau to the Report and reservations. It is also important to clarify the question of reservations, in order to understand properly how they will be reflected in the text.
On means of implementation, my delegation is supportive of strong and focused MOI section, recognizing that it is foundational for the fulfilment of the agenda. We encourage the mobilization of both financial and non-financial resources through all channels, including capacity building and science, technology, and innovation assistance, especially for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), Small Island Development States (SIDS), countries in conflict and post-conflict situations and all countries in special situations.
Finally, on follow-up and review, my delegation supports the draft’s establishment of a robust, effective, inclusive, and transparent framework, as well as its acknowledgment that it will be based on mutual trust with a goal of mutual learning. Nonetheless, similar to other delegations, we have specific concerns regarding the indicator framework, which we will share in greater detail later on this week.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged mayors from big cities to direct their efforts towards the care for the environment and the fight against human trafficking.
The Pope was speaking to some 70 mayors from around the world who are in the Vatican for a two-day workshop entitled “Modern Slavery and Climate Change” organized by the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
Telling those present he has “a lot of hope” that negotiators at Paris climate talks will reach an ambitious agreement to reduce global warming, Pope Francis said he places great trust in the United Nations to bring about a good agreement.
But – he stressed – he also wants U.N. nations to prioritize fighting both human trafficking and the exploitation of the world’s most vulnerable people.
And referring to his recently published encyclical “Laudato Si’”, Pope Francis made it quite clear that the document is not an encyclical on the environment.
It’s a social encyclical – he explained – because the state of the environment is directly and intimately linked to the life and wellbeing of humankind.
And this is not the only connection Pope Francis made in his off-the-cuff greeting in which he chose to speak in his native Spanish.
He said huge migratory waves of peoples across the globe are triggered by environmental issues such as desertification and deforestation which leave people and entire communities without the possibility of seeking a livelihood.
Thus – he said – the exodus that takes them into urban centers gives life to human trafficking which brings with it diverse forms of exploitation (be it economical or sexual) of women, children and vulnerable people.
Pope Francis concluded his address with a series of quotes and references to theologian Romano Guardini and his theology of the human person.
And he issued a strong call to all the Mayors present at the event to be aware of these problems and to seek solutions working – he said – from the peripheries towards the center.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Mayor of New Orleans on Tuesday (July 21st) hailed Pope Francis’ words and actions on climate change and said he believes the upcoming papal visit to the U.S. will be transformational and in particular his address to Congress will be “very challenging.” Mayor Mitch Landrieu was among the participants at a 2-day workshop of mayors from around the world who came to the Vatican to discuss the issues of climate change and human trafficking. Most of New Orleans is under the sea level and 10 years ago the U.S. city suffered devastating flooding when it was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Mayor Landrieu was interviewed by Susy Hodges.
Listen to the interview with the Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu:
Another major storm coming to New Orleans
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina to the city of New Orleans and Mayor Landrieu said the experience of that catastrophic event has prompted them not just to reinforce their coastal protection measures and levy system but to learn how to become a “more resilient city” in general. He said the evidence of climate change is clear and in his view there’s no question that “another major storm is coming” (in the future) to New Orleans.
Pope’s U.S. visit will be “transformational”
Asked about Pope Francis’ influence on issues like climate change and human trafficking, Mayor Landrieu praised his recent encyclical on the environment and the Pope’s strong voice and initiatives on these issues that remind us that they have a particularly negative impact on the lives of the poor. The mayor said he believes that Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in late September will be “transformational” and that his scheduled address to the U.S. Congress will be “very challenging” on issues like climate change. But, he added, “we need to be challenged” on these issues.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Ways to combat climate change and its effects on society’s most vulnerable: some sixty mayors and local administrators from around the world are brainstorming on that topic in the Vatican Tuesday and Wednesday. Pope Francis is expected to greet them in an audience Tuesday evening.
In his recently released environment encyclical Laudato Si,’ the Pope said caring for the Earth is an urgent moral imperative and that fossil fuel-based global warming puts the poor most at risk. Urban centers are considered some of the biggest contributors to climate change.
Hailing from cities in North and South America, Europe and from developing nations like India and Gabon, many of the officials are committed to environmentally friendly policies aimed at bringing down the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
The two day Vatican climate conference comes ahead of the Paris COP-21 climate negotiations in December. Click here to see the YouTube coverage of the events.
In presenting this week’s meeting, the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences said “global warming is one of the causes of poverty and forced migrations, and it favours human trafficking, forced labour, prostitution and organ trafficking.”
Mayors and Local Administrators at the Vatican summit are expected to urge global leaders to take bold action to curb global warming, and to press for approval of the UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals this fall.
Speaking to participants Tuesday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his city’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a further 40 percent over the next fifteen years. He described Pope Francis’ as “the most powerful voice on this earth for those whose voice is not being heard…he did not convene us here to accept the status quo but to indict it.”
Speaking of the fast-approaching Paris climate summit, de Blasio added, “we need to see it as the finish line of a sprint, and take every local action we can in the coming months to maximize the chance that our national governments will act boldly.”
Governor Jerry Brown, whose state of California has enacted some of the most stringent carbon emissions policies in the U.S., decried “powerful” opposition groups at home which deny global warming and “spend billions on trying to keep from office” people who believe scientific evidence proves the phenomenon exists.
(from Vatican Radio)…