On March 24, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN, gave an intervention during the High-Level Event on “Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Agenda.”

In his statement, Archbishop Auza said that global consensus, as shown in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, is essential for confronting some of the world’s biggest challenges. But these plans will remain just rhetoric unless they are followed up with specific, coordinated, meaningful and quantifiable steps forward. Pope Francis has insisted that “concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and our own interior peace” are inseparable. Human beings are part of nature and ecological crises are human crises. Our politics, economies, technologies, businesses and personal behavior are interconnected. Archbishop Auza praised the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement for acknowledging the central importance of the human person and insisted that human dignity — especially of the weak, marginalized, poor, ill, unborn and elderly, refuges and victims of violence — must remain central to development conversations. Similarly, intergenerational solidarity is key, in order to leave future generations a better planet rather than a degraded one. The evaluation of the technical, economic, social, political and legal indicators in the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement must be measured by their impact on the human person, especially those left behind.

The statement can be found here.