VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis will travel to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from December 1 to 3 to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference, the Vatican press office confirmed.
In an interview broadcast in Italy on November 1, the Pope had said he intended to travel, but the Vatican did not confirm the trip until November 3.
“Accepting the invitation of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, His Holiness Pope Francis will make the previously announced trip to Dubai from December 1 to 3, 2023, on the occasion of the upcoming Conference of the parts. “To the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” commonly called COP28, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.
“Our future, the future of our children and grandchildren, is at stake. People have to take some responsibility.”
The conference is designed to assess progress or failure in achieving the goals adopted by 196 nations and parties, including the Holy See, with the Paris climate agreement in 2015.
In his interview with TG1, Italy’s main evening news program, Pope Francis said the climate summit in Paris “was the most beautiful of all,” but since then “everyone has taken a step back and it takes courage to continue.” forward”.
Too many people, he said, do not believe that climate change is real and that it is threatening people’s lives and livelihoods today.
“We still have time to stop it,” the Pope said. “Our future, the future of our children and grandchildren, is at stake. People have to take some responsibility.”
In early October, Pope Francis published “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”), a follow-up document to his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, On the Care of Our Common Home,” because, he wrote, during the For the past eight years, “our responses have not been adequate, while the world we live in is collapsing and may be approaching breaking point.”
He also wrote about COP28, saying that it “may represent a change of direction” and show that everything the international community has tried to do since the 1992 UN Earth Summit “was in fact serious and worth the effort.” , or else it will be a huge disappointment and jeopardize any good that has been achieved so far.
