As announced in the October 26 news report by Vatican Information Service (VIS), a 10-point appeal to the negotiators at the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the Convention on Climate Change has been launched by the world’s regional groupings of Episcopal Conferences. The appeal urges the negotiators to work toward a fair, legally binding and truly transformational climate agreement.
The joint appeal has been signed by the Presidents of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE), the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM); the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), and the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO), together with our President Bishop Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., and the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as well as the President of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient.
Our Executive Committee at its meeting last August had agreed in principle that the CCCB be among the signatories. Bishop Crosby was represented by former CCCB President Archbishop Richard Smith at a preliminary meeting to discuss the document late last week in the Secretariat of State. The initiative for the joint appeal involved the FABC; the text was written in collaboration with the Catholic networks CIDSE and Caritas Internationalis, with the sponsorship of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Our offices are expecting copies of the signed document, which we will make available to you as soon as possible. The text has been published by VIS and is also posted on the website of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace,
– in English, https://www.devp.org/en/pressroom/2015/comm2015-10-26
– in French, https://www.devp.org/fr/pressroom/2015/comm2015-10-26
