COP24: Call for climate action as summit nears conclusion
By Lydia O'Kane
As the COP24 Climate talks draw to a close in Poland, vulnerable nations are warning against, what they call a 鈥渕ediocre鈥� outcome at the summit. On this the penultimate day of the meeting, the group called the Climate Vulnerable Forum said they were already experiencing the harmful effects of global warming and are pressing for greater unity among rich and poor countries.
Paris rule book
Meanwhile, negotiators from almost 200 countries are making a last-minute effort to resolve differences on the rules that will govern the 2015 Paris climate accord. Speaking from the conference in Katowice, Neil Thorns, Director of Advocacy, at CAFOD, the official aid agency for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, stressed the importance of trust during these negotiations.
鈥淚 think with all of these things, there鈥檚 been progress made on some things and still more work to be done on others and so, when we came into the second week of the negotiations there was lots of brackets around the text; that means it hasn鈥檛 been agreed and so, there鈥檚 all sorts of discussions still to be had鈥� I think what鈥檚 clear about it is though that at the heart of all this has to be the question about trust and you wonder whether there is enough trust to be able to have the flexibility to compromise, but recognizing that by compromising you鈥檙e not trying to lessen the ambition, you鈥檙e trying to move forward in a progressive way and it feels like that鈥檚 where some of the countries are at the minute.鈥�
Ambition, action, and true solidarity
At a Press Conference on the sidelines of the summit on Wednesday the Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Msgr. Bruno-Marie Duffé stressed the Holy See鈥檚 call for 鈥渁mbition, action, and true solidarity鈥�. He also said that, Pope Francis鈥� Encyclical Letter Laudato Si鈥� is an encouragement to nations to listen attentively to the cry of the earth.
Neil Thorns noted that, 鈥渨hat you hope, is the fact that people see common sense, that people do see the sense of acting for future generations, but also acting for generations now and I think Msgr. Duffe summed it up very well, he said 鈥榯oday is tomorrow you can鈥檛 leave these things鈥�, so, actually what we really do need is action now.鈥�
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