Pope, other religious leaders issue pre-COP26 appeal on climate change (Reuters)

Pope Francis, joined by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, and over three dozen other religious leaders, issued an appeal calling “for the world to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible, to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.”

The religious leaders’ meeting, called “Faith and Science: Towards COP26,” took place four weeks before COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

Addressing other participants, Pope Francis said that “openness to interdependence and sharing, the dynamism of love and a call to respect” are “three interpretative keys that can shed light on our efforts to care for our common home. COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations.”