Religious leaders around the globe, along with Pope Francis, met on Monday at the Vatican to focus on environmental target goals achieved at the upcoming Conference of Parties (CoP) in Glasgow.
The upcoming summit will take place from October 31 to November 12, hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy to mobilise stronger and more ambitious climate action. The summit will focus on reasserting the countries’ commitment towards meeting the target goals and cutting down emissions set under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The “Faith and Science: Towards CoP-26” witnessed the presence of about 40 faith leaders and scientists from 20 countries. The leaders including Pope Francis, Britain’s Alok Sharma – President-designate of Cop26 and Italian FM Luigi DI Maio signed a joint appeal to save the planet from “an unprecedented ecological crisis”.
The appeal urges all governments to adopt plans to help limit the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible.
“Wealthier countries must take the lead in reducing their emissions and in financing poorer nations’ emission reductions,” it said.
The meeting brings together Christian leaders, including the pope, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Orthodox ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew and representatives of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.
