Pope's Moral Force Aims To 'tip' UN Climate Talks

Vatican City, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Nov, 2023) He has used science to underpin his moral missives on climate change. Now Pope Francis hopes his historic presence at UN talks will help tip the balance in critical negotiations.

The 86-year-old pontiff, a defender of the poor who has made environmental activism a cornerstone of his 10-year papacy, will address the COP28 meeting in Dubai on December 2.

It will be the first time a pope has attended a COP since the process began in 1995, and Francis is expected to use the platform to castigate countries for a lack of action, and seek to persuade them to dramatically cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

He may also be able to play a role in rebuilding trust between climate-vulnerable nations and rich, consumerism-driven polluters.

"At a moment of global development as dark and challenging as the present one, the presence of a moral authority is more important than ever," professor Sverker Sorlin, a specialist in global environmental governance at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, told AFP.