On September 5, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations gave a statement at the organizational session of the ad hoc open-ended Working Group established by General Assembly resolution 72/277 of 10 May 2018 entitled “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment.”

In its statement, the Holy See welcomed the establishment of the ad hoc open-ended Working Group and said there is an urgent challenge to protect our common home, part of which involves addressing possible gaps in international environmental law and environment-related instruments and ensure their implementation. Solutions must be proposed from a global perspective, it said, and not simply to defend the interests of a few countries. It stated that the provisional agenda provides a good framework for discussions but added that it must be incorporated with the processes to deal with the governance of the oceans and the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and the draft regulations on mineral resources in those areas. For that reason it proposed that the agenda include discussions on those two processes.

Its statement can be found here.