2015 the ‘Last Effective Opportunity’ To Limit Warming, Says Vatican

"Following a closely watched Vatican climate change meeting Tuesday at the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, the attendees — including not only scientific leaders but also religious and political luminaries — have released a statement suggesting that a 2015 climate accord may be the last chance to keep global warming within a range deemed “safe” for the world, its people and its ecosystems.

Meeting attendees included U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Cardinal Peter Turkson, who heads the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, and Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs. The event is widely seen as a kind of prelude to a much anticipated papal encyclical expected this summer, in which Pope Francis will address the environment and humanity’s moral responsibility to care for it.

For now, the conference statement declares that “Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its decisive mitigation is a moral and religious imperative for humanity.” And it points very directly at an unfolding international process for addressing it, suggesting that this process must succeed — at the end of this year."

Chris Mooney reports for the Washington Post April 28, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"Vatican Official Calls for Moral Awakening on Global Warming" (Guardian)

"Why Pope Francis Is About To Make a Dramatic Wave in the Climate Debate" (Washington Post)

"British Climate Change Sceptics Who Travelled To the Vatican Interrupted By 'Papal Heavies' Half-Way Through Making Their Point" (Independent)

"Vatican Hosts Climate Change Conference Ahead Of Papal Encyclical" (NPR)

"The Pope vs. Climate Deniers" (MSNBC)

"Pope Attacked By Climate Change Sceptics" (Telegraph)