Is the Vatican serious about climate change?

During the first week of May this year, the Pontifical Academy of Science released a report on the potentially devastating impact of climate change. The working group, which consisted of glaciologists, climate scientists, meteorologists, hydrologists, physicists, chemists, mountaineers and lawyers, was co-chaired by Veerabhadran Ramanathan and Nobel laureate, Paul Cruzen.

Though initially the focus was on glaciers, the study was expanded to include the impact on climate change of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.  The widespread loss of glaciers, ice and snow on mountains in the tropical, temperate and polar regions is some of the clearest evidence we have for a change in the climate system which is taking place at a rapid pace across the globe.

The authors call “on all people and the nations to recognise the serious and potentially irreversible impact of global warming caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. If we want justice and peace we must act to protect the habitat that sustains us.”

The report from the gathering examines how climate change will impinge on forests, wetlands, grasslands and, crucially, food production. The scientists claim that, because humans have pumped billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the past few decades, human interference has resulted in the highest concentration of carbon dioxide in the past 800,000 years.

This is not a minor problem. The authors say, “We have entered a new geological epoch when the impact of mankind (humankind) became a major factor in environmental and climate changes.”

Nor can we put dealing with climate change on the long finger to be dealt with after we have sorted out our economic problems. The authors state that climate change is already under way and actions (to reduce carbon emissions) to mitigate its worst affects are a matter of social justice, especially for the poor.

It ties these mitigating actions to the biblical idea of stewardships for the earth. It is significant that the report uses the language of the United Nations (UN) Convention on Climate Change, which calls on everyone to act in a “spirit of common but differentiated responsibility.”

This means that economically rich nations, such as the United States of America (US), the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, which built their prosperity on burning fossil fuels, must act first and make financial resources available to poor countries so that they can protect themselves from the consequences of climate change.

The US has consistently opposed this principle. It insists everyone must act together, especially the newly industrialised nations such as China, India and Brazil. Unfortunately, some of the recently elected legislators in the US are climate sceptics and are blocking any action at a federal level to deal with it.

The report makes three recommendations:

·        Reduce worldwide carbon dioxide quickly, using every means possible. All nations must change from carbon-based energy to renewable energy as quickly as possible.

·        Strengthen carbon sinks by protecting forests and replanting in degraded lands.

·        Make extensive provisions to help poor countries adapt to the sudden impact of climate change, such as more severe weather patterns and rising sea-levels.

Will anyone listen to these almost apocalyptic predictions? Will the Vatican itself listen? Climate change has not been on the priority list of the Holy See. <I>The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church<I> published as recently as 2004, has only one paragraph on climate change.

The encyclical, <I>Charity in Truth<I> (Caritas in Veritate), published in 2009, does not mention climate change. There was no statement from the Holy See at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at Cancun in December 2010. George Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, is constantly disparaging of the science behind climate change before both the national and international media.

Given the seriousness of climate change as outlined in this study, will the Vatican now caution him or sanction him in any way? His colleague, Bishop William Morris, formerly bishop of Toowoomba, was forced to resign by the Vatican for publicly asking questions about the future of ministry in the Catholic Church.

In a pastoral letter in 2006, Bishop Morris asked how ministry in the Catholic Church can be re-envisioned, given the fact that vocations to the male, celibate priesthood have collapsed around the world.

For raising this question, which is on the mind of countless other Catholics as priests grow older, he was forced to resign. How Rome responds to Cardinal Pell’s climate change denying utterances will tell a lot about whether the Vatican is really serious about climate change or not.

Father Sean McDonagh (Columban)