Pope Calls for Action on Climate Change in Draft Encyclical

Pope Francis makes an urgent call for protection of the planet and repeats his view that global warming is mostly man-made in his keenly awaited letter

June 15, 2015

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By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis makes an urgent call for protection of the planet and repeats his view that global warming is mostly man-made in his keenly awaited encyclical, according to a draft published by an Italian magazine on Monday.

The Vatican said the document, leaked by the magazine l'Espresso, was not the final version. That is due for release on Thursday.

"The rules of the embargo remain in place. We ask journalists to respect professional standards, which call for waiting for the official publication of the final text," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

It was not clear how advanced in the writing process the leaked document was or how similar it would be the final version.

Francis has said he wants the document, called "Laudato Si (Be Praised), On the Care of Our Common Home", to be part of the debate at a major U.N. summit on climate change this year in Paris. He said on Sunday it was addressed to all the world's people. In the draft he speaks of "the urgent challenge to protect our common home" and calls for sustainable development.

The leaked draft confirmed what people familiar with the final version told Reuters last week about how the document addresses climate change and the man-made causes of global warming.

As sources who spoke to Reuters before Monday's leak said, the pope calls for a reduction in carbon emissions, an increase in policies that favor renewable energy and warns of the long-term effects of continuing to use fossil fuels as the main source of the world's energy system.

The encyclical would address the impact of climate change on the poorest nations and note a broad scientific consensus that global warming is mostly caused by fossil fuels, they said.

It would also ask rich nations to re-examine their "throw-away" lifestyles, they said, an appeal the first Latin American pope has made often since his election in 2013.

All of these topics were addressed in the leaked draft.

The pope himself hinted at what he would say while talking to reporters about climate change in January.

"I don't know if it is all (man's fault) but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature," he said. "I think man has gone too far ... thank God that today there are voices that are speaking out about this."

At a conference at the Vatican in April, the Holy See teamed up with the United Nations and came down firmly against skeptics who deny human activity helps change global weather patterns.

By making environmental protection a moral imperative, his intervention could spur the world's 1.2 billion Catholics to lobby policymakers on ecology issues.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

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