{"id":577395,"date":"2025-11-18T02:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/577395\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T02:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:33:11","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-calls-for-urgent-climate-action-and-says-gods-creation-is-crying-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/577395\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV calls for urgent climate action and says God\u2019s creation is ‘crying out’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BELEM, Brazil — BELEM, Brazil (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV<\/a> on Monday urged countries at United Nations climate talks<\/a> to take \u201cconcrete actions\u201d to stop climate change that is threatening the planet, telling them humans are failing in their response to global warming and that God\u2019s creation \u201cis crying out in floods, droughts, storms and relentless heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a video message played for religious leaders gathered in Belem, Leo said nations had made progress, \u201cbut not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne in three people live in great vulnerability because of these climate changes,\u201d Leo said. \u201cTo them, climate change is not a distant threat, and to ignore these people is to deny our shared humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

His message came as the talks were moving into their second week, with high-level ministers from governments around the world arriving at the edge of the Brazilian Amazon to join negotiations. Monday was dominated by speeches, with several leaders from Global South nations giving emotional testimony on devastating costs of recent extreme weather and natural disasters.<\/p>\n

Vulnerable nations have pressed for more ambition at these talks as world leaders have begun to acknowledge that Earth will almost surely go past a hoped-for limit<\/a> \u2014 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in Earth’s warming since pre-industrial times. That was the target set at these talks in 2015 in the landmark Paris agreement.<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists say in addition to deadly heat, a warming atmosphere leads to more frequent and deadly extreme weather such as flooding, droughts, violent downpours and more powerful hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Leo said there’s still time to stay within the Paris Agreement, but not much.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs stewards of God\u2019s creation, we are called to act swiftly, with faith and prophecy, to protect the gift He entrusted to us,\u201d he said. And he added: \u201cBut we must be honest: it is not the Agreement that is failing, we are failing in our response. What is failing is the political will of some.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leo made history this year by becoming the first American pope<\/a>, and has embraced Pope Francis\u2019 environmental legacy<\/a>, including dismissing climate skeptics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The U.S., the world’s second-largest polluter<\/a>, is skipping the conference.<\/a> U.S. President Donald Trump called climate change \u201cthe greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world\u201d during a speech to the U.N. General Assembly<\/a> in September. <\/p>\n

U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell said Leo’s words \u201cchallenge us to keep choosing hope and action.”<\/p>\n

Leo “reminds us that the Paris Agreement is delivering progress and remains our strongest tool \u2014 but we must work together for more, and that bolder climate action is an investment in stronger and fairer economies, and more stable world,” Stiell said.<\/p>\n

David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York, said Leo is becoming the world\u2019s most prominent moral leader against climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis message does stake Leo out as a voice for the rest of the world, especially the Southern Hemisphere where climate change is wreaking havoc with the vulnerable in Asia, Africa and Latin America,\u201d said Gibson.<\/p>\n

And he said it shows that Leo, who spent decades working as a missionary in Peru and is a naturalized Peruvian citizen, \u201chas a Latin American heart and voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Laudato Si’ Movement, a Catholic climate movement that takes its name from a 2015 encyclical in which Pope Francis called for climate action, called Leo’s message \u201ca profound moral intervention.”<\/p>\n

“He reminds the world that creation is crying out and that vulnerable communities cannot be pushed aside. \u201cHis voice cuts through the noise of negotiations and calls leaders back to what truly matters: our shared humanity and the urgent duty to act with courage, compassion, and justice,\u201d the group’s executive director, Lorna Gold, said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews\u2019 Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELEM, Brazil — BELEM, Brazil (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV on Monday urged countries at United Nations climate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[182930,3907,8616,2311,728,4179,8547,70,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-577395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-182930","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-climate-and-environment","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-religion","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115568364929458747","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}