Climate crisis is fundamentally an issue of justice and peace: African Catholic Church
Selvaraj Soosaimanikam – Vatican
At the COP-27 summit on climate change, which has been ongoing since November 6 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, African heads of state and Catholic organizations have raised their voices to demand reparations from developing countries for the losses and damages they have already suffered due to climate change.
“It is a fact that climate change has affected millions of people across Africa. Therefore, the COP-27 agreement must include financial provision for loss and damage,” Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFMCap, Vice-President of the Synod for Africa and Madagascar has urged.
The climate crisis is fundamentally an issue of justice and peace, and there is no chance of peace when polluters continue to profit from climate destruction while people suffer, Ben Wilson, legal advisor of the Catholic International Charity Organization of Scotland, has highlighted that justice cannot be built without improving solutions to climate change.
“Young people in Africa are particularly hard hit by the effects of loss and vulnerability caused by climate change, yet they are not responsible for their dispossessed future,” said David Munene, Catholic Youth Communications Program Manager on Environmental Sustainability in Africa.