Pope Francis: World leaders must seize real chance in climate battle

World leaders have been urged to seize a “real chance for change” and step up the battle against global warming to give “hope to future generations”.

In a rare interview, Pope Francis issued the appeal just days before the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow and as teenage activist Greta Thunberg was set to join protesters in London lobbying against fossil fuels.

Calling for an “urgent change of direction,” the head of the Roman Catholic Church, 84, told BBC radio: “The political decision makers who will meet at COP26 in Glasgow are urgently summoned to provide effective responses to the present ecological crisis and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations.”

He warned of the “unprecedented threat of climate change,” adding: “It is worth repeating each of us, whoever and wherever we may be, can play our own part in changing our collective response.” He spoke as:

The foreign ministry in Beijing announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping would talk to global leaders at the summit by video link. China is the world’s biggest carbon polluter by volume, but not head of population, and like all countries is under pressure to step up its actions to reduce emissions from its net zero pledge by 2060.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said whether COP26, which opens on Sunday and is due to last at least 13 days, is a success is “touch and go”, voicing hopes that nations would put aside any divisions, such as the fishing bust-up between France and the UK, to address climate change given that it is such a crucial issue.

Boris Johnson will seek to persuade leaders of the G20 nations, at a meeting in Rome this weekend, to step up their action to deal with global warming.

Mr Eustice slammed Insulate Britain as “highly irresponsible”, accusing the group of creating a “safety risk on our roads” after it occupied the M25 again on Friday near Brentwood, Essex.

Faced with the threats from Covid-19, climate change and economic difficulties, the Pope urged the world to respond to them with vision and “radical decisions” and not to “waste opportunities” to tackle them.

“We can confront these crises by retreating into isolationism, protectionism and exploitation...or we can see in them a real chance for change,” he added, ahead of welcoming US President Joe Biden to the Vatican. The world must act together, with no hiding behind “borders, barriers or political walls”, he added. Celebrities and campaigners also lined up to pile pressure on political leaders.

Former governor of California and Terminator actor Arnold Schwarzenegger flatly rejected arguments made by some countries that going green was too costly. “We are number one economically in the United States, that...makes us the fifth largest economy in the world...while we have the strictest environmental laws,” he said.

“So all of those countries that come and give speeches that we are not going to go and lose jobs because of going green... they are liars or they are just stupid and they don’t know how to do it, because we figured how to do it and it’s all about having the balls to do it.”

Many countries, though, are facing energy crises, due to high costs or shortages, which could be exacerbated by attempts to rapidly switch to renewable sources.

Ms Thunberg, 18, was expected to be one of thousands protesting across 26 countries today to demand the global financial system stops investing in the use of fossil fuels. The Day of Action protest was taking place at financial centres in London, New York, San Francisco and Nairobi.

Activists were due to campaign outside branches of Barclays, Standard Chartered and the Bank of England. They claim banks have paid £2,754,145,000,000 into fossil fuel extraction since the 2015 Paris climate change agreement. The first protest in London was outside Lloyd’s of London where red flowers reading “Rise Remember Resist” were laid .

The Glasgow summit has no global treaty to agree, unlike the last major UN climate conference in Paris. But it is being described as the summit that must deliver on the Paris Agreement and its key pledge to limit global warming to well below 2C or 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

The talks come in the wake of “code red” scientific warnings on the climate crisis and the risk of going over 1.5C of warming, with more frequent, severe climate-related weather extremes already happening, from heatwaves in the US to deadly flooding in Europe and China.

Earlier this week, UN scientists warned the build-up of planet-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had sped up and hit record levels in 2020. Mr Biden will attend the summit of 25,000 people but other key leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin are not expected to be there.

Countries most threatened by the crisis want a “climate emergency pact” that includes finance and a process that sees big emitters come forward every year with additional ambitions.

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