Efforts to slow climate change and mitigate its impact, particularly on the poor, are being thwarted by selfishness, the Vatican secretary of state told world leaders at the COP29 climate conference.
Representing Pope Francis at the conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the leaders that their Nov. 11-22 gathering was taking place at a time of "growing disillusionment with multilateral institutions and dangerous tendencies to build walls."
But, he said, "selfishness -- individual, national and of power groups -- feeds a climate of mistrust and division that does not respond to the needs of an interdependent world in which we should act and live as members of one family inhabiting the same interconnected global village."
Ignoring or denying the problem will not make the problem go away, the cardinal said. "Indifference is an accomplice to injustice."
The cardinal's text, released at the Vatican Nov. 13, assured participants of Pope Francis' "closeness, support and encouragement so that COP29 may succeed in demonstrating that there is an international community ready to look beyond particularisms and to place at the center the good of humanity and our common home, which God has entrusted to our care and responsibility."
The discussions in Baku were taking place amid concerns that President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords, as he did during his first term, and to dismantle many current environmental regulations.
Cardinal Parolin insisted that generous funding and international cooperation on climate change are necessary to "create a culture of respect for life and of the dignity of human person."
One of the key goals of COP29 is to secure the financing needed to support the urgent climate action called for in the 2015 Paris Agreement and to assist poor communities when climate-related disaster strikes.
Cardinal Parolin told participants that efforts must be made to find ways to mitigate climate change and its impact without further undermining "the development and adaptive capacity of many countries that are already burdened with crippling economic debt."
"When discussing climate finance, it is important to remember that ecological debt and foreign debt are two sides of the same coin, mortgaging the future," the cardinal said. "Ecological debt" refers to the responsibility the world's wealthiest nations have because of their exploitation of resources in the world's poorest countries and the environmental damage they have caused there.
Cardinal Parolin told the world leaders that, like his predecessors, Pope Francis had appealed to the world's wealthiest countries to give foreign debt relief to the world's poorest countries during the Holy Year 2025.
Quoting Pope Francis' formal proclamation of the Holy Year, "Spes Non Confundit" ("Hope Does Not Disappoint"), the cardinal said affluent nations should "acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them."
"More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice," he continued quoting. "It is made all the more serious today by a new form of injustice which we increasingly recognize, namely that a true 'ecological debt' exists, particularly between the global North and South, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time."
The world and its people need a global financial structure "that is human-centered, bold, creative and based on the principles of equity, justice and solidarity," Cardinal Parolin said. It also must promote climate-neutral development opportunities for the world's poorest and those most vulnerable to climate disasters.
"We have the human and technological resources to reverse course and pursue the virtuous circle of an integral development that is truly humane and inclusive," the cardinal said.
Cardinal Parolin asked participants to show the world's people that there are reasons to be hopeful and to renew their confidence that "we can always redirect our steps, that we can always do something to solve our problems."
