Holey See

The Vatican City State joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. Pope Francis has appointed two commissioners to oversee a big project that will make the Vatican run on solar power completely.

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Through the Laudato Si’ Action platform, the Holy See has committed to solidarity in the fight against global warming. As a major supporter of the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) framework, it fosters climate action through education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation. The Holy See sees ACE as an answer to previous climate finance program shortcomings, which excluded vulnerable groups.

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In “Laudato Si”, Pope Francis reframes climate change as a moral imperative holding all, especially wealthy nations of the Global North, responsible. He urges the world to be good stewards of God’s creation and stop behavior that alters the Earth’s climate and endangers the world’s poor and most vulnerable.

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Current global measures taken to combat climate change have neglected the poor, who are its true victims. The Holy See views loss and damage as a justice issue, stating that the poor contribute little to pollution but suffer the most. The destruction of the environment is an offense against God himself and endangers the entire world, disproportionately harming the vulnerable. We owe an ecological debt to those nations, and our moral task is to repay it, protecting His Creation for future generations.