“The Way Humanity Treats the Environment Influences the Way it Treats Itself”

(18 Dec 09 - RV) On Thursday Archbishop Celestino Migliore Apostolic Nuncio - Head of the Vatican’s Delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen - called for clear and firm political will to adopt common binding measures and adequate budgets for an effective mitigation of ongoing climate change.

Over 300 world leaders have flown into the Danish capital in an effort to salvage a Climate Change pact in the last hours of the two week conference.
 A draft text is considering a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees
Celsius, backed by a new fund of $100 billion a year to aid developing nations.
 Ahead of their final meeting Archbishop Migliore told the conference participants that “the moral crises that humanity is currently experiencing, be they economic, nutritional, environmental, or social oblige us to establish new guidelines.

He also noted that while global governments are slow to reach agreement on new programs to counter climate change, individuals, groups, local authorities and communities are not.

He noted how worldwide communities have “already begun an impressive series of initiatives to give form to the two cornerstones of the response to climate change: adaptation and mitigation”.

He said “While technical solutions are necessary, they are not sufficient. The wisest and most effective programs focus on information, education, and the formation of the sense of responsibility in children and adults towards environmentally sound patterns of development and stewardship of creation”.

He also outlined how the The Holy See, in the albeit small state of Vatican City, is making significant efforts to take a lead in environmental protection by promoting and implementing energy diversification projects targeted at the development of renewable energy, with the objective of reducing emissions of CO2 and its consumption of fossil fuels.

In addition, the Holy See is giving substance to the necessity to disseminate an education in environmental responsibility.

These efforts, concluded Archbishop Milgliore, “are about working on lifestyles, as the current dominant models of consumption and production are often unsustainable”. “The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself”.