Nairobi, 13 October, 2023 / 9:08 pm (ACI Africa).
Members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) are calling on world leaders expected to be part of the planned 28th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to come up with policies that are earth-friendly in order to avert the effects of climate change.
In a statement delivered at the Faith and the Future webinar, Empowering Environmental Stewardship through the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FFNPT) on Thursday, October 12, SECAM members said Africa is “experiencing exacerbated climate change and biodiversity loss.”
They also welcomed Pope Francis’ October 4 Apostolic Exhortation on the Climate Crisis, Laudate Deum, saying, it “illustrates the global social issues of climate change and echoes the obvious nature of climate change impacts.”
“As Catholic communities in Africa, we ask the leaders at the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), to recognize their moral duty and commit to urgently taking ambitious action to protect our common home and the most vulnerable,” SECAM members said in their message read out by SECAM Program Manager in the Justice, Peace and Development Commission, Simson Mwale.
They emphasized the need for world leaders at the November 30 – December 12 meeting to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to “ensure that they listen to the plight of the earth and of the most vulnerable by phasing out fossil fuels, endorsing and adopting the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
